Taking up the thread

There are plans to project Jo's video footage of Fr-agile onto a gently curved screen - similar to the shadows cast on Aire - Wave.
For 1 1/2 years this warp is waiting on my loom to be used for maquettes I started making... was it waiting to be tested as a screen?

Fr-Agile

Performance [morning]

Friday, 8 August. I leave the Warren Cottage after 4am. It is dark and windy and rain is pouring down on me. By the time I reach the blocks I know that my clothes - supposed to be weather-proof - aren't waterproof at all.

By 5am I have tied the yellow blocks to the fixings prepared the previous day.

The yellow glows in the twilight and when the rain stops the changing light makes me forget that I am wet to the skin.

The plan was to start filming at 6am when the water reached the blocks. However at six a thick cloud was shedding its cargo again into the wind. No good conditions for Jo's precious video camera... Sheltered in the car we waited for better times.

Finally, by 7:30 filming started. The northeasterly wind brought in the tide fast.

Agitated North Sea - and bitterly cold air in mid summer.

40 minutes later all the defence blocks had almost disappeared.

And within the next hour - while the light and atmosphere were changing constantly - all the yellow blocks, one by one, swam ashore.

Stranded

[midday]

The Silicone tubing which connected the 'yellow dots' with their concrete counterparts is very pull resistant and elastic. Yet the power of the waves, colliding with the defense blocks and the embedded metal bits, cut through the cords leaving the buoys stranded - like the longshore drift from the Holderness Coast that builds Spurn over time.

Sea-drawings

[afternoon]

In the afternoon after the tide receded: The tubes were so flexible and light, they moved easily with the waves. The Sea created knots and plaits and drawings.

Building buoys

The floating blocks are almost ready. My old sewing machine did her job and I'm thankful she didn't leave me in the lurch. Now we just have to drink one more bottle of Volvic. Then I can do the last bit.

Yesterday evening I did a bit of 'project management'. Stefan's prophecy is that everything will be different ... however the three days we are planning to stay on Spurn to me will be pretty much defined by the tides and when the sea gives the defence blocks free. It is first quarter moon, so the tides are moderate - just four metres difference between high and low tide. At full or new moon it can be up to 7m.

The red line in the tide table shows when about the defence blocks are accessible without me being swept away. If all goes well and the weather cooperates Jo will be recording the movement of the Yellow in the rising tide next Friday early in the morning.


Today I gathered all the bits and pieces such as tools, nuts and bolts, ropes. As usual everything takes longer than planned. And the question remains: what did I forget?