Video link in part of this sentence.
This one is the first assignment to date which is not a performance project. As such, it it the first in which the emphasis is on the end product rather than the process. Additionally, since the end product in this case is making a GIF, there isn't a whole lot that can be shown pictorially about the making of said GIF, unless you are interested in what GIF creating software looks like. It's going to be a picture light post today.
Here's the breakdown of the steps:
1. Think of something intimate and indispensable.
2. Depict it pictorially in some manner
3. Animate these pictures as a .gif file
4. Put it on the internet.
5. Fame and glory (sic).
You are currently reading the results of step 4, whereas step 5 is up to you and not us, so I suppose I need your help to become famous and glorious in order to complete this task to the letter. So yeah, help us with step 5.
Anyway, when I first watched the assignment it was late at night, Lucy had already gone to sleep and I was buzzing, thinking about what sort of things we could turn into a GIF. All sorts of things went through my mind like making a timelapse of something, doing a stop motion transformation, or even make a short film. But none of these things really answered the fundamental question, what was our intimate and indispensable thing?
The next morning, Lucy saw the assignment. We talked about for a bit, and came to the conclusion that it was us, that our intimate and indispensable thing was the time we spent together doing things like baking cheesecake, doing the art assignment, and taking many pictures of various Gromits.
Let's explain that last one.
First, are you aware of Wallace and Gromit?
If not, then fix that immediately and give this a view.
During summer last year, a ten week event was held in which 80 large statues of Gromit were placed all around the city of Bristol (and surrounding areas), each one decorated by a different artist, with their own punny name. The idea was that at the end of the ten weeks, they'll all be auctioned off with the proceeds going towards healthcare for children.
at the time of the event, Lucy and I had been together for about eight months. We had seen the Gromits around on our normal walks, but didn't pay them much notice for a while. Then Lucy found out how many there were and decided she wanted to take a picture of all of them. By this point we only had a few weeks left before the event would end, so we had to move fast.
According to the timestamps, it took us about 13 days to get them all, with the Bristol local Gromits being the first to go, and the outliers being left until last, including Gromits found in a farm, a little village in the middle of nowhere, in front of an arboretum, in Cheddar, and a station in London. (1 city... nothing but lies).
While Lucy took care of the photography side of things, I handled the logistics, planing out routes and digging through bus timetables (neither of us drive) in order to reach them all. As some of the Gromits were indoors, closing times became a constant source of aggravation (especially that stupid library that doesn't think Mondays or Wednesdays exist!). Some of the further afield Gromits were so remote, that there was a real danger of getting stranded with buses becoming once every two hours, stopping at invisible stops.
But we did it, we got through the hardship and struggle and collected several pictures of all eighty of them. And it is with these pictures we set about making our GIF.
The image was made using GIMP 2.8, a really nice free little program with an intimidating user interface. I recommend it to anyone who wants a good free GIF making software. There are 196 frames in this image, each one required resizing in order to fit the required dimensions. All the images were taken by Lucy last summer, displayed in order of capture.
As the photos were taken with no intention to do anything with them, sorting and sizing them was long and tiresome process that both I and Lucy contributed to. At one point Lucy cried out that she'd rather be studying her accountancy work than resize another Gromit. In a way, the process of making the GIF was not unlike the laborious process of tracking them all down and plotting their route in the first place.
But that's what makes it all so special to us. It was hard work, and at times we hated it, forgetting why it was we started this project in the first place. But with each photo collected, our determinism to complete the set grew, as did our excitement to plan out the next one.
Such memories and experiences of the journey made the destinations all the more memorable. They strengthened the bonds between us and set the precedent for more unusual endeavours.
We laughed, we got lost, we went on a lovely walk, it rained, we got wet, and it was an adventure. -Lucy
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