Nicholas Hedges

Art, Writing and Research

Fragments and Additions

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I’ve always been interested in the idea of fragments of the past and how, mentally, we add to them in order to create a view of that past. I did some work on this with some patches of fabric following a visit to the Foundling Museum in London (see Patterns Seeping and Patterns Seeping II).

Sometimes I have reversed the process to make fragments of work I have alreadymade. Again, the examples below (‘Missded’) were made in response to a visit I made to the Foundling Museum (see ‘Missded 1‘, ‘Missded 1 Stitched‘, ‘Missded 1 – A Framed Token‘).

Taking this idea, I’ve applied it to the ‘Shadow Calligraphy characters’ I’ve recently painted. I’m not suggesting for one minute the results make for good art, but I like the idea that a remnant of the past (the ‘character’) can be added to, just as when we try and imagine the past, we create the colours and sounds that went with the original fragment.

My choice of inks was extremely limited and these aren’t quite right, but it’s an idea I’ll continue to explore, as I have done with some oil paintings already.

Nana's Mountain

Fragment: GPS to Midi

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I’ve been looking for a way of converting GPS data to midi as part of a project based on a fragment of mediaeval pottery which I found in the Museum stores at Standlake in Oxfordshire. The GPS data derives from a walk I made around the area where the pot was discovered during an excavation in 1986 (St. Aldates in Oxford).

Part of the project articulates the idea of the pot’s creation (on a potters wheel) by using a turntable on which a vinyl record will play a fragment of an audio piece, the rest being composed of silence (or at least the crackle of the vinyl). The idea for the audio composition was to create something using GPS data. But how could this be turned into midi information?

The image below shows the route recorded on my GPS device.

Fragment Sound Walk 01 Garmin

Originally, I’d coverted the data into midi (via photoshop) as in the image below, but the result was too complicated, and not a little messy.

Fragment Sound Walk 01 Midi

It was whilst considering how one makes paper snowflakes, that I went from cutting holes in a fragment of paper to the holes of old piano rolls. What I needed was something which was more like this. Instead of trying to copy the line of the walk completely therefore, I have instead blocked in notes where there are points on the GPS map as in the images below.

Firstly, in Photoshop, I combine a screenshot of the map with one of the midi inspector in Cubase.

Fragment 1

Then, where there’s a circle on the GPS line, I create a note in the nearest ‘box’.

Fragment 2

The result, when compared with my earlier attempt is now much neater and easier to work with.

Fragment 3

Fragment

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I’ve spent the last day or so working on a new composition which will form part of an art installation based around a fragment of mediaeval pottery… (all will be revealed in due course).

Anyway, for now, here is a very short part of what I’ve written and recorded. By the way, the vinyl crackle is important as regards the visual element.

Fragment.mp3

Mediaeval Pottery

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As part of a future project I have been loaned two fragments of mediaeval pottery by the Museum resource Centre at Standlake, Oxfordshire. I visited the MRC today and with their help rummaged through a few box-loads of pottery shards and decided on the two pictured below.
Mediaeval Pottery Shards

Mediaeval Pottery Shards

Both pieces are mediaeval and were found around the Trill Mill Stream area of Oxford during an excavation in 1985.

© Nicholas Hedges 2024