Back projecting on glass

The Tagtool was set up to test out back projecting on the frosted glass in the children's area.

Our grand plan was to try projecting Tagtool animations today to accompany Shona delivering a story session to a group of children from Daisy Chain Nursery School. But the sun came out making it way too bright for projecting.

Meanwhile up in Science and Business Alistair was putting together a diagram for staff explaining how to operate the handset to animate their drawings.

Alistair's diagram came in useful as Duncan, Anna and Louise from the children's department came to try projecting their drawings on the glass in the music department.

Lorna (MA student) dropped in to try out the equipment, she is on work placement in the Dundee library service for one month. Lorna is studying Information and Library Studies at Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University.

Elvis of Dundee

Elvis, a regular in Science & Business came in sporting his Nine Trades badge look.

Arduino's, Austria, Hackspace and the T-List

I first met Magnus Lawrie at the cycling event in February, it turns out as well as being a throughly nice bloke he is also a regular in the Science & Business department. Magnus recently organised a meeting in Dundee discuss getting together a Hackspace in the city. As Tagtool is open source hardware and runs on Nodekit freely avaliable open source software I went along.... I met an impressive array of local tech wizards whose knowledge of computing went way above my head. Despite this and me being the only woman they were really friendly and welcomed me like a local. I am now signed up to the T-List forum and have tapped into local talk relating to Arduinos*, internet, creativity digital issues and other open source chatter.

http://lists.ditch.org.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/t-list.

Alistair started thinking it might be an idea to showcase the open source software books at the library. Maybe this could happen alongside a Tagtool session?

The good news is that Nine Trades project has agreed to support the provision of the entire Tagtool kit, and for it to be based in the library. We now have a Wacom A4 Intuos3 graphics tablet. At the end of April Alistair is going to attend the International Tagtool workshop in Austria, where he will build the library its own Tagtool.

* Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Its also the key component in the Tagtool

My Dads Strip Club night

7.30 Thursday 15 April 2010

Hannah Maclure Centre

Top Floor Abertay Student Centre

1-3 Bell St

Dundee

As well as working on the Nine Trades project at the library, Im going to be putting on an entertaining evening featuring the work of My Dads Strip Club at The Hannah Maclure Centre at 7.30 - 9.00pm Thursday 15 April. its free and open to the general public. I'm hoping some of the great people I have met so far will come because it will be my pleasure to entertain them.

This is a one-off event, which is going to be followed by a set of six presentations running on Thursday evenings in May and June called The Spacemakers designed to build and support community and creative interventions in the city for more info on this click here.

The events are organised by D-AiR... (pronounced Dare) which stands for Dundee Artists in Residence a new initiative in the city that profiles the work of Dundee-based artists, celebrates Dundee as a city of culture and creativity, and fosters links between artists and the wider community.

Link to D-AiR's website here

Tagtool at McManus

A few weeks ago I met with Kerri Mcgowan the Creative Learning Officer at McManus, (who incidentally was involved with the development of the Nine Trades project over the past few years). I briefly told Kerri about my priorities at the library and introduced her to the Tagtool concept. In true Dundee style she made me very welcome at McManus.

I explained that I'm working with Sandra and Verity from the library with six teenagers on the Grey Lodge AAAA project. We want to experiment with the Tagtool and projecting their drawings to music. The original idea was to work in the Steps Theatre but it wasn't a suitable space. The plan is to produce some work to present in June at an event at Tanadice. Kerri was hugely supportive and is kindly making available the study room for us to work for two days in April and May.

Quick thanks to Colin and Derek from Inclusive Solutions who've kindly have lent me their projector to experiment with next week. I plan to try out overlapping images and drawings with the Tagtool.

The LIFE group and The Spacemakers

Generally at the start of the week I support Alistair (library worker Science & Business) who runs a weekly support group called LIFE for people recovering from problems of drug and alcohol abuse. The group produces it's own newsletter Oor Paper, Oor Stories to help people understand what kind of life experiences members are struggling with...

I've met with Philip Malcolm the AXIS project worker (who refers members to the group) and Alistair to tailor a series of entertaining presentations relating to the shared experiences of participants in the group. Each session introduces a set of art linked a particular theme, such as 'rules and containment in contemporary society'.

I've included contemporary work by a variety of artists working on the international scene. Group members have been enthusiastic to talk about the questions and issues raised in relation to their own experiences. Of course not only is this new to the group participants but also introduces the workers to a body of arts work relating to the issues that link into their practice. Word got around at the Axis project and last time we met we were joined by support worker Linda Thomson. Linda also volunteers for the Vice-Versa project ( which aims to tackle street prostitution).

If this sort of thing interests you and you'd like to broaden your thinking on what can be art and who can be an artist you might be interested in a series of six Thursday evenings I'm running between 20 May -24 June called The Spacemakers - Celebrating the Art of Urban Subversion at the Hannah Maclure centre.

This is organised by D-AiR ( Dundee Artists in Residence) it's free and open to the public, but places are limited and you'll need to book a place in advance. Either come and find me in Science and Business or check out the D-AiR website if you'd like to know more.

Five Priorities

On average I'm spending 10-14 days each month in Dundee, I'm based in the Science and Business department at the Central Library

The premise of the Nine Trades project is to de-mystify the publics preconceptions of who can be an artist and what art is, widening access to the arts, opening the doors to the arts for more people.

Here are five priorities I have made for my work at the Central Library...

• To support the library staff in their ongoing work with vulnerable groups including liaising with related voluntary sector projects in the city e.g Grey Lodge, Axis.
• To promote the use of Tagtool* within Dundee.
• Install dedicated Tagtool equipment at the library and train staff interested in using of Tagtool.
• Liaise with artists and key players in the community interested in working with the Tagtool.
• To challenge preconceptions of who can be an artist and what art is.... widening access to the arts.

*TAGTOOL - a live performance instrument for drawing and animation developed as an open source project by developers in Austria.