edge-zine edition 11 "Catalyst" by Edge-zine

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Catalyst Please note: Readers may find some of the themes covered in this issue upsetting

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Front Cover Art: The Journey By Jessica Voke

CONTENTS

Back Cover Art: Part of The Edge Collective contribution

Disclaimer: Despite careful control of the contents, we assume no liability for the content itself or of any external links. The operators of each interlinked site are exclusively responsible for the respective contents. Copyright: We hold no claim or credits for images, texts or other materials featured on our sites or publications. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials on these pages are copyrighted to the respective owner and artist. No part of the material published on our site or publications, either text or images may be used for any purpose other than personal use, unless explicit authorization is given by the stated owner. Therefore reproduction, modification, storage in a retrieval system or retransmission, in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical or otherwise, for reasons other than personal use, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

Editors Note

Tutor Thoughts: Reimagining Performance: the Internet as a Catalyst for Change - Carla Rees

Edge Momentum... - Helen Rosemier

#BeKind

Seeing The Light - Wendy Ward

Get Social

“A Caged Bird Sings” - Esther Ward

The Edge Collective

CHAIN REACTIONS PROJECT The Dare to! Collective

Mutation - Geraldine Leahy

CATALYST - Amano Tracy

The Journey - Jessica Voke

The Catalyst Effect of Ice - Michael Green

Submissions call

Contributers bios

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Editor’s note: I hope the eleventh issue of edge-zine finds you well and safe. In this issue you responded to the word Catalyst some as individuals, some in collaborations. All are equally treasured pieces of work. You can see the time and effort that has gone into each contribution and we the edge-zine editorial team thank you for your hard work and time taken to create each piece. Personally thinking about what the word Catalyst means to me has made me think of getting through the last twelve months. I found myself coming back again and again to the landscape I live in. It drives me to keep going, it drives me to get tasks completed (so I can spend more time exploring them). It drives me mad some times with its crazy weather. But it drives me! Each work of art in this issue has been driven by something, I am sure you will enjoy looking at the work and thinking about the efforts of each contributor. I am always amazed by the work completed in collaboration the way people come together to make artwork is normally impressive. However, in these times of distancing it is even more amazing! Individual pieces speak of you and your response to the theme. Every issue I have been involved with it is fascinating to see and then read what has inspired an artist to send work to us for you all to see. Like the Landscape seeing the creativity you have drives me to the next issue, the theme of which will be “Identity”. The deadline for submissions will be August 31st 2021. So I now hand the guest editor tasks to Catherine I will step up and give her the support she deserves along with Amy, Sophie and Brian who form the team that curate this student-led zine. I know we all like to read how and why you created your work. It is a Catalyst for our efforts. Thanks to all for making this issue special and now it rests with you to identify with the next issue I look forward to seeing how you respond.

Michael Green. 4

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Imprint: Editors: Sophie Edwards Catherine Banks Michael Green Communication: Michael Green Funding: Catherine Banks Design & Layout: Amy-Sarah Opitz Contributors to this issue: Jess Scott, Geraldine Leahy, Esther Ward, The edge collective: Sarah Gallear, Adelina Gelu, Baris Ucar, Arlene Sharp and Helen Rosemier. The dare-to collective: Angela Mullins, Deborah Phillips, Liz Smith, Viviane Smith, Kim Walker. Wendy Ward, Michael Green, Amy-Sarah Opitz, Jessica Voke Publication is property of the open student collective of edge-zine, 2016-2021 Email: michael515037@oca.ac.uk Publication platform: www.issuu.com/edge-zine Website: www.edge-zine.com Twitter: https://twitter. com/edgezine Facebook: https://www. facebook/edgezine Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edgezine

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Tutor Thoughts:

Reimagining Performance: the Internet as a Catalyst fo By Carla Rees

I am a musician, specialising in the performance of contemporary repertoire for flutes of different sizes, from piccolo to contrabass, but with a main focus on low flutes. I work as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborator, working with composers to develop new repertoire which I then perform in festivals and concerts throughout the world. Before the pandemic, I travelled a lot – in 2018/19 I performed in Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Japan, the USA and Brazil, as well as numerous UK performances.

he pandemic has been extraordinarily challenging for musicians. First, there were the cancelled concerts – I watched my diary empty virtually overnight, and with it, a large proportion of my income. That’s the public face of it, but it goes further. We also cannot rehearse, which

means not being able to test new ideas, or use any of the finely polished ensemble skills which we work on every day. As a player of a single-line instrument like the flute, this also means not being able to hear a complete piece of music (unless it’s something written only for one instrument). it’s the visual equivalent of wanting to look at a painting full of colours but only being allowed to see the elements that are blue. Solo repertoire has a lot to offer, as a monochrome image might do, but a huge proportion of the music I was used to playing on a daily basis cannot be played without access to other musicians. Early on, musicians moved online, livestreaming concerts from their homes, compiling videos where everyone plays their individual part and someone stitches it all together, or pre-recording tracks from home and playing them out over YouTube. It was a way of surviving, and making sure music didn’t completely disappear, but sound quality is variable as a result of dry home acoustics, low quality equipment (not many of us had a home studio set up already) and often a lack of technical know-how, and it also cannot capture the magic of interactions with other performers and the audience.

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: or Change

Music is by and large a social activity – we ous sizes from duos to orchestras, and even laborate on a daily basis with composers, ot makers, sound engineers…and also with audiences through interactions in performance. Spaces are also important elements of performance, as the sound reflects from the different surfaces of the hall and performers learn to interact with, and get the best out of, the resonances created. There are also the visual aspects of performance to consider – the intimacy of watching someone playing live, right in front of you, and the atmosphere that can create. Music creates a relationship with time, changing the audience’s perception of time and creating an immersive experience which can take the listener out of the normality of everyday life. Watching a pre-recorded video on Facebook or YouTube doesn’t quite have the same impact. It quickly became clear that there was a need to reinvent and reimagine to be able to practice our art at all, beyond individual practice within the confines of our homes.

One of my long-term collaborators is composer and computer musician, Scott L Miller. Scott is based in Minnesota, and we have worked together on various projects for the last ten or so years, all of which have relied on one or both of us travelling between continents and working intensively for a few days. That was yet one more aspect of musical life that could have stopped with the pandemic. However, as part of his broader research in VR and AR, Scott b telematic performance, and we found this ope possibilities.

work in ensembles of variin my life as a soloist I colther performers, instrument

began exploring the field of ened up some exciting new

Anyone who has used Zoom (and let’s face it, that’s pretty much all of us now) will know that even two people speaking at the same time causes the sound of one to cut out. This, combined with poor sound quality, is a disaster for music, as it means that you cannot use these sorts of systems to play music together. It’s fine for solo performances, and there have been huge leaps in Zoom’s ability to handle audio over the last year, partially thanks to practically every instrumental teacher in the world moving to online systems for their work and Zoom responding accordingly. In terms of ensemble playing, though, it’s no-go, and that’s even without considering the latency issues caused by the internet. Various different platforms have sprung up over the last year to try to remedy some of these issues. Apps such as Soundjack, Jamkazam, Sonobus, Jamulus and others are now buzzwords in the music world. One of them, Jacktrip, is an established hardware-based solution developed by Chris Chafe and his colleagues at Stanford University over the last 20 or so years. This is a sophisticated system which is capable of enabling large ensembles to work together with relatively low latency, assuming everyone has access to the right hardware and powerful internet servers. Netty McNetface, the platform we have been using most, is a free, open-source app which allows up to 12 people to connect at the same time. It is easy to use but requires access to a server; an early part of the process was therefore Scott learning how to set up a server that would mean we could connect whenever we wanted to. The technology is still in its infancy, and each platform still has its drawbacks. We’ve tried quite a few over the last year. Some worked brilliantly for a while and then stopped working completely, others were so complicated to set up that without a PhD in internet systems and a large heap of luck, it was impossible to connect. www.edge-zine.com

Sometimes the internet just doesn’t want to play ball, but with Netty, using Scott’s own server, we have found a reliable and usable connection can be set up in seconds on the majority of days. It became clear very quickly that in order to play music online, we’d need to consider what sort of music might be suited to the platform. Latency and dropouts are a very real issue – not just because of bandwidth and distance issues but also because of the way the internet is set up in different countries and the interaction between different ISPs (the last year has been quite a steep learning curve in this regard). Data is sent in packets, meaning a drop out can cause a missing chunk of sound which can’t be replaced. Latency can happen at lots of different stages in the transfer of data, meaning that different people in different locations have varying experiences, so coordinating exactly, as one might in a chamber music performance, is highly challenging, to say the least.

music does, so latency issues are less relevant than in other forms of music making, and can even become part of the music’s creation. Using graphic scores as a form of notation is not new, and there are numerous examples of extant scores which have been used in different contexts. For this project, Scott has created his own sets of scores, some of which are shown here. Graphic scores allow the performer a good deal of agency; they provide a focus for interpretation, as well as an underlying structure and (often) a mood or atmosphere (although there is scope to interpret that in different ways too), but they do not tell the performer what notes to play, or how fast to go. Each player has space to develop their own musical expressive language in response to the visual impetus of the score. Within an ensemble situation, this could potentially mean multiple interpretations happening simultaneously, except that the process of listening and responding means that players react to each other in order to create a unified approach. This can include dialogue (even arguments!), a range of textures and allows space for diversity of ideas which can encourage us all to explore areas of new ground. Different colours can be assigned to different players, or we can build in random elements, such as each individual choosing where to start within the image. Listening to how others respond to the same material is a fascinating learning experience in itself, and it can be a lot of fun trying to follow where each of the players is in the score.

However, aspects of the work I was doing with Scott prior to the pandemic could be transferred and developed for telematic platforms. One of our major projects in recent years is, Islands, a work for flute and electronics where the score is an image of a place, and my part is improvised in response to electronic sounds, which are themselves responding to the volume levels in the room.1 The piece has elements which return in each performance, and new elements which are created in the moment. These elements combine to create a unique experience at each performance. There’s something quite magical about performing with people in different locations and creating a This approach is ideally suited to telematic (over shared musical experience at a distance. In this the internet) performance. Although the environ- context, the performance itself can’t be experiment-specific electronics are not so viable in this enced anywhere else other than the internet – the context, responding to a combination of visual and sound is a mix, created at Scott’s computer from sonic elements to create new musical material in everyone’s individual microphone feeds, including the moment is not only possible online, but high- his live processed electronics, and broadcast via ly enjoyable. Improvisation requires listening and YouTube. Each of the performers can hear the responding, but does not necessarily need an ex- others through headphones as we play, and conact co-ordination, in the same way that chamber trol the balance between the parts through 1. For a description of Islands and to see the score, see https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/music/solo-flute-quartet/ A recording is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN72nnHyVWM 2. One experiment I undertook with Clarinet player Sarah Watts was to explore what the end result would be of music played ‘blind’, without hearing each other. The result demonstrated how much listening and responding is part of the process, but was nevertheless extremely interesting and could be explored further.

volume controls for each player. We can choose to hear the others, or not to2. Yes, we could all be in the same room, playing together, but each of our individual locations brings something extra to the experience. Even just knowing that we’re experiencing different times of the day from our fellow performers can have an impact on the sort of music we play. I genuinely feel that some of that magic would be lost if we were in the same space. There is a sense of occasion created by all being online and playing together; seeing that there are viewers for the livestream helps to get a sense of audience presence too. There is an added advantage, which is that there is a greater potential to reach a wider audience online, especially taking into account asynchronous views as well. This project has been important to me both personally and professionally. It has given me the opportunity to continue to develop a meaningful long-term collaboration with Scott, as well as with clarinet player Sarah Watts, who is a founder member of my ensemble, rarescale. It has enabled me to work with and learn from colleagues I have never met in person; it is normal to meet new colleagues in performance work, but these are people situated on a different continent and we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work together without a lot of travel and expense. It has provided me with an outlet for my performance work over the last year, helped a lot with my well-being (despite everything, I have found a way to still be a performer) and allowed me to continue to develop my research work. Most importantly, I think, it has provided me with a new and invaluable musical and creative challenge which has opened up new areas for exploration. I am sure that this approach to music-making will continue to be part of my future musical life. There is a lot of potential for further development, and this style of playing may even develop into a new genre of its own, as the technology advances and more people explore the potential of telematic performance. There is scope to foster even closer links between music and visual art, as well as to explore new ways to help the audience experience to evolve. The world of VR and AR beckons, and the possibilities are exciting.

Performances: 1. After a few months of recordings and tests, our first performance took place on 5 December 2020 as part of the NottFAR symposium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImd9T1kqPI 2. This performance took place on 17 Jan 2021. The other performers are based in New York and Minnesota, and we never met in person. (Apologies for the tech issues with Scott’s microphone which means his introductions were not broadcast!) https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=5WllV3W_k_E

Scores: All scores © 2020 Scott L. Miller; Publishing license granted to American Composers Alliance, Inc. (BMI) Except for 05 IX © 2021 Scott L. Miller; Publishing license granted to Tetractys Publishing High-Low II This is an example of a score where the colours can be distributed amongst different performers to create a range of dialogues and textures 05 IX This was written for rarescale. The score is divided into a series of individual parts (see separate file). Each player works from an individual part in order to contribute to the piece as a whole. There are 4 parts which can be played in any combination, with one or more players interpreting each part simultaneously. Piano-Forte This is designed as a table-top canon (as was often seen in Renaissance part-books, where players would sit around the table and read the music in the orientation of their view). Player one starts at the top of the page and reads from left to right. Player two starts from what looks like the end and plays the music in reverse (or rotates the page and reads from the top!) www.edge-zine.com

Edge Momentum... By Helen Rosemier

Keeping up Momentum is an initiative designed to inspire, motivate and connect OCA students. There are a number of virtual study events a year made up of creative workshops led by tutors and peer-to-peer talks. Edge-zine asked the organiser Helen Rosemier how the ‘Keeping up Momentum’ sessions came about and if they have been a catalyst in her own work…

Cause and effect... Catalyst 15: A work in progress. Catalyst 14: Catherine emails me to ask if I’ll submit an article for the Edge zine. We’ve been good friends since meeting on an OCA study visit many moons ago. I settle down to write back. Catalyst 13: I use feedback from Keeping up Momentum attendees in a proposal to the Student Association and am able to secure funding for future sessions.

Catalyst 12 impossible they are no those darke

2: People tell me they have been inspired and motivated to try new things, things, fun things and that they’ve made new friends through these events; that ot as isolated anymore. I feel a sense of purpose which helps me keep going on er days.

Catalyst 11: The quality of collective work produced in the Contamination/Curation workshops blows my mind and inspires me to experiment more. Seeing all those little Zoom boxes, windows into creative spaces, into the homes of new friends, makes me feel like I am part of a chorus. Fellow students take ideas to places I would never think of. My garden table becomes a lab. www.edge-zine.com

Catalyst 10: Worried that I am slowly sliding into a depression. Everything seems hopeless and pointless. I start deleting messages from my inbox and come across an email from another student saying that they’d been thinking of giving up their Catalyst 9: People start asking when the next session will be. I plan another event.

Catalyst 8: Lockdown continues and my anxieties are compounded by a lack of progress with my Body of Work. For the second Keeping up Momentum, painting tutor Hayley Lock urges us to be really experimental and to use chance as an ally in our work. She says that it doesn’t have to make sense to other people, as long as it makes sense to us. We are asked to create a zine for the follow-up session. I feel obliged, as the organiser, to show willing and this prompts me to try a new approach with my work. I am finally moving again. Catalyst 7: We move the London regional group into a virtual environment, invite Bryan Eccleshall and some other OCA friends to contribute to a session on how to keep making work in difficult circumstances. Bryan reminds us that art is not about freedom or hanging on to perfection. It is about finding a way out of a problem. As a group, we collaborate and appropriate and make work. We put it on a Padlet. Making these connections feels comforting and inspiring.

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Catalyst 6: Bryan Eccleshall, OCA tutor and Facebook friend pops into the Zoom Saloon one evening and talks about offering support to students who are struggling. I start hatching a plan. Catalyst 5: I’m confined 24/7 to a small flat and garden as my clinically vulnerable husband has to shield, and me with him. All I can think of to help the ‘war effort’ is to create a virtual room as a drop-in for people when they are feeling lonely or upset. It quickly becomes a lifeline for me.

Catalyst 4: Covid shuts down London and we have to cancel the Steve McQueen study visit. I cannot stop catastrophising and am too distressed to focus productively on my studies. I start thinking about giving up. Catalyst 3. The OCA London trio meets again and again for coffees, for chats, to visit exhibitions, to critique each other’s work. It is encouraging. Catalyst 2: Richard, Beverley Duckworth and I become the founding members of ‘OCA London’ and get together for the first time in the Barbican Arts Centre for Daria Martin’s Tonight the World. We are inspired, excited and motivated. We totally click as a support group and make plans to meet again.

Catalyst 1: An anxious, lonely, student called Richard, living in North London posts on the OCA Forum about wanting to start a local study group. I settle down to write back. www.edge-zine.com

#BeKind

...You don’t know what they’re going through;

Seeing the Light By Wendy Ward This work was inspired by flashes of light passing though a damaged blind, which made me think of light at the end of the tunnel, very poignant at the moment. I used a discharge technique on velvet, basically printing a design on fabric by removing areas of the original dye, reverse dyeing. A grid was placed over the cloth and the discharge solution, a bleach based substance was painted through the grid. Dye removal can produced varied colour effects depending on the depth of application

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Get Social... There are many groups and forums to be found involving the OCA (if it involves canoes, you are probably in the wrong place). A great Twitter starting place is the Student discussion forums available on @opencollegearts the student website, you must ...and find us here: be logged in. Here you will find @edgezine plenty of different categories to browse through and a lot of support, whatever your query or news you have to share.

#edgezine #ocaillustration #ocacreativearts #weareoca #ocafriends

Instagram Regional: OCA Europe OCA Southwest Open College of Arts Find us here: edge-zine

#ocagraphicdesign #ocatextiles Have we missed your OCA group or page? Let us know so thata we can add you in the next issue!

Facebook OCA: The Open College of the Arts The Open College of the Arts Support Group MISC.: OCA Sketchbook OCA Cafe OCA Store Regional: OCA Textiles - East Midlands OCA in the South West OCA Southwest OCA Thames Valley Group Course: OCA Photography Students OCA Photography level 1 OCA Textiles OCA Fine Art Students Group OCA Drawing skills OCA Illustration OCA Graphic Design Students OCA Printmaking OCA Creative Arts (CAT) OCA Cafe find us here: edge-zine edge - Contribu

We at edge-zine are not involved in the administration or day to day running of (most of) these groups or pages and bear no responsibility for their content. This list is for information purposes only. www.edge-zine.com

“A Caged Bird Sing I know why the caged bird sings excerpt from poem by Maya Angelou

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill Of things unknown but longed for still And his tune is heard on the distant hill for The caged bird sings of freedom.

Being in a place is always the start of my process. This is usually being physically present, but in the last year I have had to learn to be present through film and photography or through accessing memories of place. Walking and drawing begin the connection of shape, line, colours and impressions of culture. Serendipity always plays a part in my work. The finding of odd items such as a kebab stick on the shoreline begins a process of making odd connections in my memory . Historical research is incredibly important to me , I was trained as an historian and the act of unearthing meanings both within libraries and from the landscape lead me on to my making process. Music and poetry add to my process often as a second stage consideration and as in the case of this piece of work about a cage can lead me making unforeseen links. I made a drawing of a caged space which related to some metal work lanterns in the Italian Chapel. Those lanterns kept reminding me of birdcages and so memories of a Grandfather who kept caged birds and whose own WW1 experiences caused him to suffer throughout his remaining years. So the words of Maya Angelou seemed apposite. I would have stopped at the making 24

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of a small sample / drawing as I couldn’t envisage scaling the work up in a way that honoured the fragility of the kebab sticks. However a helpful tutor intervention sent me back to thinking and sampling and the resulting cube form of 1.2 m square evolved. There were mishaps with finding ways to secure the structure but I took inspiration from Japanese aesthetics and made simple knots part of my drawing process and the form has far more evidence of the makers hand because of them. Waiting for a calm weather slot is an act of patience in the wild location I live in but one eventually arrived and the work was photographed on location near my home. It was the unexpected sitings of the work within the WW2 lookout posts which resulted in the final set of images. My preconceived idea of where to photograph the work produced uninspiring results ! And it wasn’t until all the possible photographs were curated and considered that a narrative seemed to emerge which I felt honoured the creative endurance of the Italian POWs who built the Italian Chapel.

gs”

By Esther Ward

Lockdown An exploration of confinement and seeking freedom. Found materials, domestic refuse - kebab sticks and cotton. Filmed in WW2 look out shelter Wester Ross

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Writing on the Wall

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Dawn Casts Shadows

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Liminal Space

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Freedom

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The

Sarah’s thoughts on the collaboration:

Having the opportunity to work with other students an across different practices provides many benefits. Fo of a collaboration includes having a totally open aren make work around a specific theme. There is a free discussion which flows into the work and certainly ho artists and takes the work you make into a different le

ollective

nd to share ideas or me being part na to discuss and edom in the open ones our skills as evel.

By Sarah Gallear, Adelina Gelu, Baris Ucar, Arlene Sharp and Helen Rosemier

Adelina’s thoughts on the collaboration: For the Catalyst collaborative project, I experimented with the drip technique discovered by Jackson Pollock in which he poured paint over a horizontal paper and moved his hand so to spread paint in different forms and patterns. The process seemed to be perfect for the catalyst concept which signifies something that grows and multiplies itself, in this case paint is driven by human hand and grows progressively and it results in an unexpected form.

The

Collective cont.

Arlene’s thoughts on the collaboration: The collaboration was, as always, a rewarding experience. Working together generated fresh ideas and challenges as we explored how we could bring our work together within the remit of the Catalyst theme. Through several iterations, combining static and moving images, we eventually came up with the final concept. The video demonstrates how we have allowed our pieces to come together, and in doing so, we have altered the viewer’s experience of these images. Now combined, they have a synergy and the video as a whole presents as something very different to the component parts. This fits well with the theme of a catalyst being an agent of change and has only been achievable as a result of the collaboration. Helen’s thoughts on the collaboration: We found the theme to be quite challenging and struggled to resolve how to bring our work together and make it more than the sum of its parts. Through experimentation with our individual images and letting our ideas be influenced by each other’s work via a Padlet canvas, we eventually reached a critical mass. The next stumbling block was how to pull everything together in a way that made sense to us. The great thing about collaboration is that as well as there being a wide variety of ideas and imagined outcomes, each member of the team has a different skillset. Baris took the innovative step of making a video with the Unity software. 32

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For me, the movement of the camera and the trajectory of the cubes is like the creative process of making work - stilted and jumpy at times, with things disappearing from the edge of your vision, then approaching in glorious full view but always remaining a bit hazy and mysterious. The eerie sounds are from NASA Voyager recordings of Jupiter and the final output seemed fitting for a month that had seen the incredible Mars Perseverance landing which could be a catalyst for all kinds of wonderful things.

B c

A fo h sa a a liv to A a

Bari’s thoughts on the collaboration:

At a personal level, the theme catalyst brought orth some ideas in a train of thoughts: “What has caused metamorphosis of Gregor Sama?” - a unique ancient medallion as the catalyst for this transformation to change him and his view on the world - objects in our own ves that witnessed us change to who we are oday. At collective level, I have realized that creative collaboration process may not be strict-

ly defined. There is no guideline how to make it after all to the satisfaction of each one of us. Then as Fredrich Nietzsche said, “You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.” It was evident that each artist and piece in this collective was a catalyst to produce the final piece. Sarah’s art piece Aftermath was a major inspiration to me for the interactive digital installation as it fits beautifully as a skybox texture which has formed the basis of the 3-D space. At the end, several sessions were recorded and edited on video editor to finalize the submission as a short clip.

The

Collective cont.

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{CHAIN}{REACTI

By The Dare-To! Collective: Angela Mullins, Deborah Phillips, Liz Smith, Viviane Smith, Kim Walker

Contributors’ Reflection Catalyst is the underlying concept of our recent Twelveweeks CHAIN REACTIONS PROJECT, which focused on an evolving collaborative artwork allowing all contributors the freedom to reinterpret and re-create the same piece from a different perspective. It was also an opportunity to defy the situation and to make and exchange a physical object during this real-experience-starved pandemic time. Our process followed the principles of a game of consequences: an initial piece was developed and parcelled up together with a related word or phrase, and then sent via postal service to another member who would, in turn, review the content of the parcel, then consider the original work and each subsequent re-work as sparks igniting creative ideas. They would send the artwork to another team member. Each team member had ten days to complete their task. Before and after photographs were taken by each participant to document the process entirely. All types of alteration were allowed, including adding/removing/cutting/changing elements. As the process was set in motion, the work was transformed by our approaches, passing through time and geographic place to acquire a new identity and achieve spatial and temporal meaning. We all eagerly awaited the result: a dramatical revision of the artwork transposed from painted objects through sculpture, art-photography to video and had taken on a life of its own. We purposefully did not exchange any information during the making phase of the project to avoid cross-contamination of ideas. We wrote a word - or an expression - on a piece of paper that summarised our take on the produced work. The piece of paper was included in the parcel. Our artwork's meaning underwent a transformative journey going from 'cultural change' to 'ascension', moving on to 'sensation', then 'direction' and finishing with 'catalyst'. This unique experience was inspiring, ludic and felt like a breath of fresh air in our imposed isolation. Not only did the experience proved enlightening, but it also demonstrated the creative benefits and enrichment of working collaboratively. The project was testament and proof of art as a catalyst for change, that making art, especially during these uncertain times, is a positive and energising force and that the most extraordinary thing comes from change.

IONS}{PROJECT}

Our project implicitly addressed two crucial and often-afflicting elements of the creative process: artists' resistance to change and the renunciation of control. Acknowledging destruction is a natural part of the creative cycle. It was also a reminder that we are essentially the makers and not owners of our art, and the best artworks generally exist outside and beyond ourselves. The experience was inspiring, motivating and ludic at both a collective and personal level and has sparked ideas for future projects. www.edge-zine.com

Individual Reflections Viviane: I made the initial item when the United States of America's Presidential campaign was running full steam. I was taken aback by the way various political groups reinterpreted the democratic process. The American internal struggle sparked a reflection on the approach to democracy in France, my birth country. I felt strongly about the current political situation, how democracy can be abused and decided to create a visual response. As I worked my way through, the work started to express itself and expand to include cultural aspects with critical historical events that have shaped France as it is today and the French people. Reflecting on the artwork I produced, I felt that the message coming through was 'cultural change'. I secured the different components in a box and sent them to Kym. I felt both anxious and excited as I handed the box over to the courier company: anxious because I had no control over what would happen next and excited to see what we would collectively create.

Kym: "... I was a bit like a child on Christmas Day receiving Viv's starting piece. I was eager to open the parcel, excited to see what it contained! Soon as I saw the red, white and blue bottles and the figures painted on cloth, the word 'revolution' came to mind. The fizzy-drink bottles suggested a consumerist theme and together with Viv's phrase 'culture change' immediately prompted ideas around escaping, rising above the powers-that-be that insidiously influence our choices and freedoms - the notion of transcendence seemed particularly apt during a time when we feel stuck, limited by forces beyond our control. I admit to feeling a tad revolutionary as I looked at Viv's delicate painting and reached for a pair of scissors. Whilst I have no qualms about chopping up my work, destroying someone else's carefully considered creation required courage, so, heart-in-mouth, I made the first cut, praying Viv would forgive me! I stuck on tape, tied on strings, attached feathers - the piece seemed to grow out of itself. Boxing up my offering together with the word - 'ascension', I sent it on its way wondering what on earth Debbie would make of it!".

Debbie: "I saw three coloured Coke bottles that had been taped together, feathers attached, and labels hanging. There was also bubble wrap dangling off the bottles. I immediately thought of a hot-air balloon. I wove a wool basket to go in the bubble-wrap and tied wool to drape around the sides. Deciding more colour was needed and I painted the brown tape and the labels purple, which brought everything much more together and gave some much-needed colour. The final touch was wrapping glitzy sequins around the top of the bottles. I could happily have continued but decided it was time to stop and pass it onto the next-in-line. I enclosed the word 'sensation', hoping the project would provide colour and sensation to the viewer."

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Angela: "... what I saw when I opened the box sent from Debbie was far from what I could have imagined! The word that came with this piece was 'sensation', whilst the object felt akin to directional flying. Although I tend not to make 3D installations or work with recycled materials as a printmaker, I did not consider my contribution for long, using recycled printed paper formed into directional arrows. I chose the word 'direction' which seemed appropriate to convey this hot-air balloon being directed amongst us and sent my contribution to Liz. The combined making of five individuals acting as a catalyst for one another brought an unexpected closeness, creating a bond during a time when we cannot physically meet, touch or even share the same air."

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Liz: "My first reaction was 'Wow, what is this?'! Not having seen the piece's progression, I was only seeing a snapshot of its evolution - like a photograph captures a moment, and you wonder what came before and after. I thought of 'direction' as a catalyst for change. I decided to not add or take away from the piece and instead produce a photographic and video graphics response. The image is made up of a grid of images; each smaller image contains a part. The parts may be 'dislocated but represent the whole. The video introduces a different direction and maybe a change in the way we see something. In the words of Dirk Gently, "Everything is connected". Each of us can bring about change in others; each of us can influence the direction taken by others; each of us is a 'catalyst'." www.edge-zine.com

Mutation

By Geraldine Leahy

My practice involves observing traces and imprints in the landscape resulting from human or natural activity. Currently, I am looking at the effects of coastal erosion in my locality. Whilst walking the beach, I explore the residual marks of severe weather events. These marks are the consequence of displacement and subsidence in the terrain and take the form of manmade and natural debris. My approach involves using debris, such as plastic, in layered processes that reflect the changes in the environment. 2020 has been a momentous year for us all. We have had to reassess our lives in the face of a deadly pandemic. I think it is possible that 2020 may act as a catalyst for change as we come to fully understand the extent to which we have impacted on our planet. Most of the paintings I have included in this submission began as mono-prints of plastic strands that I found on the beach. The plastic behaved like a catalyst in my work, producing a different image in each painting without itself changing very much. This contrasted with natural materials which disintegrated after one use. My local beach is strewn with the detritus of a changing climate. These lingering items are like traces and imprints of severe weather events, ironically creating, through their presence on the beach, a sense of absence and loss.

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CATALYST

by Amano Tracy

When my mother passed away at the beginning of lockdown, it was a shock but not completely unexpected. A few months before, she had celebrated her 100’th birthday and for the last couple of weeks experienced pain that even morphine doses were slow to relieve. As her chief carer, my life was bound to change and before too long I found myself without a regular income and the support bubble that made my mother’s final years largely pain free and even enjoyable. Completing OCA work was not easy; my body of work had come up against opposition. The local newspaper had interviewed me but never published the interview and

stopp seem active seem was ra histor

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ped printing my photographs. They med to think I should be politically e about what I was doing yet med unconcerned about questions I aising over the obliteration of local ry by new building.

began the last module of the ographic pathway, “Sustaining Practice”, I felt the need to start work. Not surprisingly, after a false I began making work around my mother. This was largely initiated stash of 30 love letters that I came ss while going through her effects. d heard she had had a boyfriend e my father but was unaware that as a Czech wireless operator who had met while in the WRAF during war; apart from the letters, there a photo album of a holiday she had t in Prague not long after the war d. The romance blossomed but dered; her boyfriend did not want e and work in England and she did want to live in Czechia. The Nazis gone but less than two years later, Soviets occupied the country and el, her boyfriend, for the second in his life, had to flee his country. cally, he eventually came to live work in England but by this time my er had met the man who was to me my father and Marcel had also someone else.

gan working on a body of work nd my mother based on a collection

of photographs I made of her as well as a collection of family photographs dating from her early years. The first photograph of my mother is probably from 1922 in which she is pictured as a toothy child on the seashore with her elder sister; there is also a painted portrait from this time. What I found was a steady stream of images from childhood to adolescence to emerging as a debutant on the London scene and the sudden advent of war during which she dropped evening gowns for uniform. After the war, there was celebration and then marriage, all there in photographs and the occasional piece of text. She had been photographed by her father and then by my father yet also by various studios; the family photographs are so much more enduring than the stiff formality of stylised studio portraiture. My father took early retirement to paint and his photography reveals an eye that could compose with technical ability limited to reading the iconographic guidelines on boxes of film. My own photographs started about 30 years ago around the time my father passed away.

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I decided to call the work, A Woman I Never Really Knew, which reflects my surprise at the discovery of her premarital affair yet perhaps more bluntly reflects a discovery of her an an object of the male gaze. As her son, this is not comfortable to consider. The fact that she was considered something of a beauty is hearsay but looking at some of the photographs I can see why. I began to objectify my mother as a person, to understand her in a way that I had not seen during her lifetime. Yet this is not what the work is about. A friend and former OCA tutor suggested I read Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes; I had already done so, a couple of times, but reading the book at this juncture was poignant. In the book, Barthes writes one of the most influential texts on photography yet he also laments his mother who had recently died. Barthes himself passed away before the book became public and so death is an underlying theme of this book as is the object known as photograph when viewed in a certain way. Making the death of my mother the source of my OCA studies changes the gestalt of work. I no longer feel the emphasis to make a successful body of work rather one that is true to my mother and makes sense to me as well as others. The process of the work is transformative, of coming to terms with a situation, of understanding death as a question that cannot be answered (the historical Buddha is said to have wisely refused to comment on the afterlife) and even if I do not get the degree I would like, I shall at least have discovered something about life and possibly myself.

Isn’t this what making art is about!?

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'The journey' (ink, watercolour, A5)

The Journey By Jessica Voke

I made this picture while working at a painting residency in a Himalayan village in 2019. The residency lasted two months and really challenged me, both as a painter and more generally, as it was a very intense environment, often a lonely experience, and provided me with a rare insight into what poverty really means. Perhaps because of these challenges, it was a hugely productive time and my work evolved into an increasingly haptic and materially experimental direction. My painting was made with reference to a photo of a mountain woman carrying a heavy load of firewood. The path stretches out behind her, with mountains looming on the distant horizon, and she strides into a future that we as the viewer cannot see. I made the painting quite quickly, using thinned out ink and impasto watercolour (applied with a twig, as a reference to the subject) and at the time it was a throwaway sketch. Now, looking back, the image takes on additional significance for

me. Since completing that challenging residency and returning to the UK, I became pregnant and then the world fell into the global pandemic... Here we are, all these months later, and I have an 11-month old ‘lockdown baby’, suffering from chronic illness, and raised in enforced home-arrest in a new area where we knew nobody. This painting now really chimes with me -- I look at this woman, alone in the mountains with her heavy burden and the path receding out behind her, and I feel a kinship. Most of all I wonder what is ahead of her. We see the woman’s past, but the future is unwritten.

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The Catalyst Effect of Ice. By Michael Green

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The Ice Drift North! The way we live has been a Catalyst for Global Warming. We see it around the places we live. What is happening in the more remote areas of the plane? The Larsen Ice shelf is breaking up and as it does it releases Ice that travels North pushed by wind and sea currents. It travels straight towards South Georgia. I want to show some images of the ice and the animals that live on it.

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The Ice Shelf The Antarctic Peninsular reaches way North from the South Pole. It is still an icy wilderness. Ice formed over thousands of years and is fragile.

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This is the northern edge of th the Weddell Sea. These huge calve. When it does we give th names such as A-68A. We the it makes its epic journey, the I gallons of freshwater into the

This causes the sea level to ri salinity of the sea affecting the

he ice. It is at the entrance to e slabs of ice are beginning to he larger pieces of ice great en plot its progress North. As Ice melts releasing millions of sea.

ise, but locally changes the e wildlife that lives in it.

Just its presence means that penguin have to swim hundreds of miles further to catch Krill. The krill need saltwater and moves to get the right salinity. The leopard seals then need to travel further to catch a penguin.

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The Animals This blue wilderness is full of life. We humans nearly destroyed it with excessive Whaling and Sealing. We changed our behaviour and the life is coming back. Now we need to make a change again. One morning I was stood on an icy beach at Damon Point. I was pondering what I was seeing all around me and asked a scientist colleague. “When I get home and people ask me what is the one they can change today to protect this place?” She stood silent and I worried she was upset with my stupid question. After a few seconds she said to me “When they leave a room, turn off the light if it is on!”. We can’t all afford electric cars and we have our families to support and lives to lead. But we can all turn the lights off. Or the heating down 2 degrees.. It saves money too and as a Yorkshire man I like that.

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The Ice The ice is dynamic. I never tire of seeing the ice. Whatever the weather or light the ice is stunning. It makes you short of breath. With both its cold and its beauty. Here are some images of the ice in different conditions. The hues are created by the sunlight hitting the earth at a shallow angle because of the tilt of the earth the suns rays spread out. Making the atmosphere Act a little like a filter. Then when the light travels through ice it is further filtered leaving the Blue for us to see. If the ice goes this will change so much. The ice in Antarctica regulates the planets weather. It triggers the currents in the sea helping move nutrients around the planet. You could call it the earths engine. We all know much an engine costs to repair an engine and what it is like if the engine breaks. The final image demonstrates the ice is melting once the ice has gone it has gone.

Turn the Lights off...

There are no penguins on a dead planet...

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Witch on the Hill By Amy-Sarah

I sometimes wonder if people can feel or see the emotion attached to a sketch. Take for example this one, it’s not that great: over working, a mistake in the perspective and don’t get me started on the clouds. But unlike other sketches I have attempted above my skill level this one was a catalyst for my recovery. It’s fair to say I was pretty broken when I drew this, my confidence was shattered and my physical health was still a long way off from recovery…I didn’t even know what I was going to draw when I started it! Just fore, middle and background! After a few days it took shape, sometimes the pain of holding a pencil hindered my progress, but eventually it was finished. For me it gave me a grounding point, somewhere I could start from. When I uploaded it on social media, I was so surprised by the response. People wanted to know the story behind it, there is only three people that know the original story and I have no intentions of expanding that pool. Another wonderful surprise was that people were contacting me and connecting on social media bringing their own meaning and stories, Likening it to characters such as Heathcliff and saying it gave them hope. It was fascinating and humbling that a rather inept sketch could have such an impact. Since then, I have done other sketches that are technically better, but nothing has had the same impact as this one. Which makes me question if it is the story or the emotion we create our art works with, rather than the art itself, that makes a piece special? This sketch will always be special to me as it helped me ‘get on’ with life and gave me confidence to keep on creating. Context? Catalysts? Ambiguity? Relatable? www.edge-zine.com

“Call for Submission In this world of constant change, one element remains the same: Earth is filled with people. Together, we make a beautiful mosaic of humanity, each of us representing a new and unique piece of the window.

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ns...”

n the inside, we are all the same. Media using sound and moving images Our hearts beat, our lungs breathe, should be in .mp3 or .mp4 format.

our blood flows through our veins, but Please send a short bio of up to 100 on the outside no one of us is identical, words and a reflective account from the shape of our noses to the prints detailing your creative process, 200of our fingers. We are British, Russian, 2000 words. African, Asian. We are male, female, young and old. We are rich and poor, Each submission will represent you gifted and wise, and some of us are still as an individual and will reflect the waiting to discover our potential.

incredible diversity that makes this world extraordinary.

Our gender, our colour, our race and our talents all contribute to who we truly are Incomplete submissions will not be – and to what makes us special. To what accepted for consideration. gives us our identity. Closing date: 31/08/2021, 11:59 We invite all OCA students, tutors, and alumni to submit their own, unique We look forward to reading your contributions for Issue 12: Identity. submission We welcome ideas, sketches, works-inprogress, writing, images and music.

Your edge-zine team

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E q m o a b o fr c

Carla Rees Tutor Thoughts

Carla is an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher with 30 years experience. After working for several years as a flute teacher at Wycombe Abbey School and Nottingham University, she currently works at Royal Holloway, University of London and runs a flute teacher training course for rarescale Flute Academy. She is Music Programme Leader for the Open College of the Arts, where she is has developed an innovative open-access distance learning music degree

W o tw in m w c

https://www.carlarees.co.uk

Wendy Ward I am a textile student working on level 3. I enjoy using textiles as a voice to tell a story or illustrate an event. I am very passionate about the use of Textile art used in a therapeutic way to help heal and mend. I combine techniques and mediums exploring new and exciting methods within my art. Hand stitch is often included within my work as this ancient use of thread, needle and cloth still has the same power now as it did before records began. Hand stitch introduces identity and takes ownership of the work.

Wendy’s Website 70

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Esther Ward Esther Ward is an artist based in North West Scotland. From here she finds inspiration from her research into locations which have experienced conflict. Drawings made of that existing landscape, collecting found materials and artefacts form the area and historical research lay the foundations to her work. This is largely 3D in form and though her response to imagery and materials she tries to bear witness to both the exterior landscape and the interior landscape of human stories of loss and endurance.

Instagram: @esther_ward Facebook: Esther Ward Artist

The Dare-To! Collective

Angele Mullins, Deborah Phillips, Liz Smith, Viviane Smith, Kym Walker

Emerging from a multi-discipline collaboration, the work of the ‘Dare-to! Collective aims to provoke questions: What are we looking at? Why are we looking? How are we looking? Via a rich range of media, we explore and play with format, material and media within our work, but also with the display of artwork within the space it is presented. We believe that the viewer’s experience is as vital as the artwork or the making process. Works may be periodically re-arranged, re-formed/re-made, replaced by other work thus inviting viewers to periodically reconsider our artwork. The ideas generated within our group have been rich, diverse and exciting, and have come from sharing our learning and skills rom the varied disciplines of painting, printmaking and photography. We work on combined projects to create bold, daring, innovative works that both challenge ourselves and the viewer’s experience.

We have a website for Our Collective website: https://dare2tocollective.wordpress.com which includes a short bio of each team member. Member websites: Angele Mullins: http://www.spaces.oca.ac.uk/bookpressprintpm2; https:// witter.com/BookPressPrint; - Deborah Phillips: https://oca.padlet.org/deborah5259131/Portfolio; https://www. nstagram.com/debbiephillips173/; - Liz Smith: http://www.liz515728lpe.wordpress.com; http://www.instagram.com/ misselisabethuk/; https://twitter.com/MissElisabethUK; - Viviane Smith: www.vivianesmith.wordpress.com; https:// www.instagram.com/vivianesart; - Kym Walker: https://spaces.oca.ac.uk/kymcoratinpainting2/ https://www.instagram. com/kymcoratin_art/

Helen Rosemeir I am a level three student living in East London, using photography to explore temporality and the traces of things..

https://helenrosemier.blog/ Facebook:@helen.rosemeir

Geraldine Leahy I am a Level Three OCA student on the Painting Degree Pathway. My practice involves observations of traces and imprints in the landscape resulting from natural and human activity. I use layered processes that reflect the mutability and temporality of fragile environments. I am inspired by the natural world and by literary works, especially poetry.

Instagram: @gleahyart www.edge-zine.com

The edge collective

Catalytic Adelina Gelu: I am based in Timisoara, Romania and I am currently doing Photography, Landscape, Places and Environment unit in which I explored different mediums and techniques. Lately I worked with cyanotypes, lichens, infrared and straight photography which enriched my practice and raised my photographic voice. https://adelinagelulpe.wordpress.com

Baris Ucar: I am interested in exploring fine arts in the new media with visual storytelling at the heart of it. I am currently taking a foundation course on creative writing at OCA and working on a graphic story titled “Little

Helen Rosemier: I am a level three student living in East London, using photography to explore temporality and the traces of things.

Sarah Gallear: Working with both

digital and analogue techniques, including alternative processing such as chemigrams and plant based developers. Visually I like striking shapes and textures in my work, with the smaller details that I find can be overlooked.

I am currently working on a long-term project to capture the transient nature of the area where I live and investigating those more forgotten local landscapes.

In 2014 I won the PythonOakley People’s Choice award in the Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival with a landscape image and am currently on my final level three photography course, ‘Sustaining your practice’ My blog is https://spaces.oca.ac.uk/sarahgallearsyp/

https://helenrosemier.blog/ https://www.instagram.com/helen. rosemier/

Arlene Sharp: My paintings are an exploration of objects and how they relate to their surroundings. I am interested in relationships such as negative space to form, the effects of light and contrasts of colour, shape and line. My work is about making sense of my observations through the material qualities of paint. I explore ways to conceal and reveal, building layers that obscure and define. I am interested in how these hidden or partially hidden layers add resonance to the work. I am currently part-way through Painting Level 3 modules Contextual Studies and Major Project, where my body of work centres on my walking experiences through the local landscape. https://arlene509550.wordpress.com/ 72

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Amano Tracy

Jess Scott (Voke)

I started studying with the OCA in 2007. i was already a published photographer and felt the need to delve deeper into the medium. Working as a carer allowed me the time to pursue studies though it is taking a long time to complete the photography pathway.

Painting student, currently based in Cornwall (UK), and have recently returned to my studies after a maternity break. Currently taking creative motivation from the philosphical musings of Tal R.

www.amanosamarpan.com https://amano3.wordpress.com/ Facebook: Amano Photography Instagram: Amano photography

https://jessicalaurenscott4.wordpress.com/

Michael Green Michael works as a photography and dive guide who travels to the Arctic and Antarctic. In his spare time, he enjoys walking, photography, and travelling. https://michaelgreencandn.wordpress. com/ https://michaelgreenidentityandplace.wordpress. com/ https://michaelgreencandn.wordpress.com/ https://michaelgreenlevel2landscapeblog.photo. blog/

Amy-Sarah Opitz I am currently studying on the Creative arts pathway. I’m a mother of 4 kids and 2 dogs. I love my VW T2 ‘The Lady Matilda’. #MentalHealthMatters #YouMatter

www.byamysarah.com twitter: @byamysarah Facebook: @byamysarah Instagram: @byamysarah

Team...

Michael Green

Sophie Edwards

Michael works as a photography and dive guide who travels to the Arctic and Antarctic. In his spare time, he enjoys walking, photography, and travelling.

Sophie is a British author ising in works for young ad lives in the UK with her husb four home-schooled childre she is not studying, you can gazing out over the moun working on her eighth nov ally with a child on each kn

y ambition is for our magazine to M develop so it becomes a vital part of the OCA’s communication with students and tutors. I would like it to be a place where all can showcase their work, all while helping us learn

Your

how they achieved the result

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My motivation stems from that comes with touching and changing lives through ty and talents. Everyone ha thing to share. Everyone h own abilities, and I want share those gifts with the want to be a part of the cha only creatives can give.

Catherine Banks

Amy-Sarah Opitz

specialdults and band and en. When n find her ntains or vel—usunee.

Catherine was born and raised in Sheffield, eventually moving on to leafy Surrey. Prior to retirement, she worked first as a probation officer, then a mental health social worker and became involved in NVQ and post-qualification training for social care managers.

m the joy g hearts h creativias somehas their to help world. I ange that

My ambition is for edge-zine to be recognised as a collaborative, multimedia publication that other artists seek to be included in, and to gain funding for it to appear in print as well as online.

Amy-Sarah worked as a graphic designer, small business advisor on demographics and targeting before giving it up to work as an artist and illustrator, promoting normalisation of mental health issues. In her free time, she enjoys working on her VW Camper, named Matilda, playing the saxophone, and walking the dogs. I like developing an idea and taking it to the end product. As one having bipolar and living with more than one non-neurotypical person in our household, I never know what the morning will bring. But for edgezine, I would like it to evolve beyond the pages.