The Addition 6 exhibition opened this evening. Steve helped me set up yesterday afternoon and he and Paulina attended the opening which was a sterling effort. I thought that the standard was uniformly good. Vanessa and Kat’s work was excellent as was that of Ali Bezer and Lucas Davidson. There was a lively crowd of mostly young people and the weather was balmy. My work drew some appreciative comments. A modest occasion, but one I’m glad to have been involved with.
Gavin Bannerman, in response to my email this morning, sent me a pdf of the Deed of Gift this afternoon, duly signed by an official of the State Library of Queensland. The official signed the Deed on October 3, the day after my visit to the Library to sign the Deed and have it witnessed: see the October 2 post. The delay came from Gavin. The Accession Number is 29193.
Today I went to the State Library to sign the Deed of Gift, thereby formally entrusting my archive to its care, and concluding negotiations dating back to 2005. The Deed needs to be signed by a senior Library executive. Once that is done, I will receive my copy of the document. I also handed over the releases signed by the interviewees and a revised script that had not been among the items taken away by Gavin Bannerman and Zenovia Pappas when they came to my place on the 21st of September.
This evening I showed friends the 30 minute loop Steve and I have put together, minus sound, for the Addition 6 exhibition. It combines still frames and videos in what is a pleasing and dynamic presentation. It was well received, as it had been the previous weekend when I showed it to family. The sound will be minimal, but atmospheric. I feel I am onto something.
Gavin Bannerman and his colleague Zenovia Pappas duly kept their appointment at my place and we went through the associated papers which all refer to the SD footage. They departed with a document box of folders about ¾ full. The equivalent ‘paperwork’ for the HD footage, which the Library has already, is all digital. It remains for me to draft a statement covering the presentation of the interviews on their own. My concern is that should this happen, it must be clearly made known that the interviews are peripheral to a project devoted to biodiversity. Once the wording is agreed, I shall go to the library to sign the Deed of Gift.
Steve uploaded four more short grant-aided videos to Vimeo to add to the 8 he uploaded over the weekend. A week ago we finalised the sound for the first 25 tapes. I have shot-selected 61 SD videos and am waiting for identification on at least 3 more species. The 4 new videos bring my total on Vimeo to 103.
After months of to-ing and fro-ing, an email arrived from Gavin Bannerman, curator at the State Library. It confirmed a meeting at my place to select associated papers, such as final scripts, interview transcripts and the like to be added to my donation of the unedited footage of the archive. This is essential so that the Deed of Gift, which lists what the donations consists of, can be completed.
Nigel Fechner, a mycologist who has been helping me with identification for a number of years, sent me an email identifying 2 more fungi species for the 100+ videos, having already identified 3 species. I have been working apace through my SD footage. Of 57 shot selected videos, 11 are of fungi. I have shot selected a further 11 videos for which I need species identification, Nigel having obliged by identifying the 2 fungi on the list.
Was able to inform Peter Hendry, with whom I went moth trapping on July 6, that a species he recently identified, was the species of a larva I filmed over ten years ago, which I wrongly thought was of a butterfly, not a moth. I was very recently put right by the senior entomologist at the Queensland Museum, but he could not pin down the species. The images link Peter provided did not show the banding on the legs, but the google images not only did, they also showed images of the larva, which proved to be the one I wrongly thought was a butterfly.
This evening I was invited to an Arts Dinner at the Centre in Beaudesert to receive a certificate commemorating my grant. All recipients in the current funding round were presented with a certificate and to the gathering. We had our photo taken on stage for the local paper. For a reason which eludes me, there was no such presentation for my first grant. The food was excellent, far better than the food at my only previous Arts Dinner.