Further development of artefact

This is where I left of last time:

1. write the song and then elaborate it in my statement.

2. experiment more with the magnetic ink

(3. kill my ink-darling and make an artefact I can actually move by my song? Cause I probably won't be able to combine the magnetic ink and 'movement by sound'..)

1. I decided to skip the song. I would like to work with music but I think it is best to keep it a bit more simple and just try to say one thing: that I like being only partly the author of a work. This I decided when working on my statement. I shouldn't try to say everything I want to say in one thing. Now I am focussing on making an artefact that I create in 3 steps: 1. draw something with the magnetic ink 2. let the material work, so let it bleed into the water/oil 3. bring it to life. as a 'surprise' i would let the work 'finish itself' by influencing the ink from underneath the glass plate, which looks like the ink is moving just by itself. In this way the work would be a sort of collaboration between the material and me. I would be partly author, the material would be partly author. The material as a maker would become more explicit when the material would accually come alive and finish the work through the magnet.

2. the achieve this I had to experiment more with the magnetic ink. I gathered some more toner and tried to find a balance in having enough oil so it would bleed enough into the oil on the plate, and having enough toner in it to make it as magnetic as possible. This turned out to be pretty hard. The ink kept responding only very weakly to the magnet. Too weak to actually 'draw with it. So I tried using a different soil: I needed something that was thinner than my glass plate. I tried paper, plastic, cardboard. I still didn't work well enough. Then I tried to change my approach: what if i would draw something first, poor oil or water over it and then influence it with the magnet? It would give me a more figurative image to start with. But the ink would stick too well to the soil and not be very influenceable anymore in water, and in oil the image would just disappear because it would blend with the oil.

I recorded some of these experiments when I found myself a cameraman. Those you can see in this[1] playlist. The experiments I did by myself I didn't film anymore because it was too difficult to concentrate on my experiment and filming at the same time.

So, I can't seem the desired results out of my experiments. I think the problems lies in these things: 1. magnet. Using the thinner soil made the magnet work better, but still not well enough. I tried getting my hands on a stronger magnet, but at the WDKA was no magnet stronger then the one i already had (the neodynium). Stronger magnets are too expensive for me to buy, except when I would buy it at Ebay, but the shipping would take 3 weeks, that I didn't have anymore. 2. not dragging the ink but dragging the iron particles within. This is actually the problem I started with, when using to big iron particles. I though the toner-powder would fix this. But when I using the thinner soil and saw a much clearer result, it turned out that I was still just dragging the iron particles. The particles would drag some ink along with it, but the ink moved too slowly to keep up with the particles, so in the end I would be dragging only small particles, not leaving a line of ink. 3. water tension. In the water the ink would move quicker, more fluently, but there was the problem of the water tension. The water tension was too strong to break, so I wasn't able to draw lines, and the ink would just float to the edges of the water and stay there. 4. getting a figurative image. Not getting a figurative image kind of took out me as an author. So my work would then just be the material doing it's thing, having the upper hand.

I am screwed. I realise now that I will not be able to make the work I had in mind. And reading back it all comes down to the problem I started out with: I cannot drag the fluid, I can only drag the iron particles, that will never really mix with the fluid because they are not fluid. This is me not being able to control my material.

I think there's a few things I can do now:

1. cry in a corner because I failed to complete the thing I had in mind.

2. collaborate with a material I do know: just water and ink.

3. leave out the whole liquid-part and try to collaborate with just the iron particles, that do respond to me and my magnet.

4. make the artefact about my process and make it about trying to collaborate with a stubborn material.

I tried 3 first. It looks nice, very much like a fur. I could make a little animal out of it, that would be nice. The steering of just the particles is doesn't quitte say what I want to say though, it's too simple, too obvious. Just like 2: is is the origine of the idea without any development. I'm not settling for that. 4. would be alright if I didn't already show my proces in the presentation. Would be twice of the same. leaves 1 XD