Around 1989 a job offer came up from the BBC to become their 'Video Consultant'. I had consulted first South West TV with regard how to get their transmitters from not turning off when experimental work with a full screen of black and no sound was in the work (which reminded me of the black page in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern) and after that I worked with Channel 4 as the Television series we did on Video Art "On Video" introduced plenty of technical problems (more around ip which we had to clear) and then the BBC rang. So I went down had a look at the set up in TV centre and could see that they had pretty straightforward kit which would allow no more than editing and transmission. When we both realised there wasn't a job there it turned out that ALan Yentob, the then controller of BBC2 had made a mistake in the scheduling of Wednesday nights which left a 10 minute slot at 8.50 to be filled - immediately. Claire Patterson who was partners with John Wyver jumped right in there and proposed a radical new thing - a set of shorts for 52 weeks where an artist went to see a piece of architecture to critique it.
So I got put on what was to be called Building Sights straight away and in the end made three programmes which you can see below. Because this was a new duration to work with then it meant that anything went - so as a Director writer I started bringing in the first steadycams, simon platforms, tracks and dollies and if a BBC cameraman wouldn't attempt something (like the massive 200 foot simon platform shot in Byker wall (which admittedly scared the pants off all of us) - being an otherwise cameraman - I could step in and do the shot. With the second piece, the Boots Wets Building (they had both wets and dry buildings for potions and powders) I started bringing in a video art aesthetic and because I'd discovered Arvo Part, this was the first time his composition were heard on the BBC. The Lloyds Building matched me with Michael Craig-Martin and off we went to Lloyds and decided it was just a big modernist room with an 18th century drawing room plonked on top. In other words: We had fun. NEXT: 6: Cinematography & Scripts 1992 - 2006 |
A trip sideways to the BBC
'The Past' is spilt into 9 areas:
1: Vida 1976 - 1981 2: Transition 1981 - 1982 3: Triple Vision/Videomakers 1982 - 1985 4: Triple Vision & Channel 4 1985 - 1992 5: A Trip Sideways to the BBC 1988 - 1990 6: Cinematography & Scripts 1992 - 2006 7 Academia 2007 - 2016 8. CineFest 2015 - 2016 9. Sedition Art 2015 - 2023 10. Makersplace & NFT's 2019 - 2022 11. 2025 and Beyond? Works Created in this period for BBC's Building Sights
Building Sights 1 BBC 2 1989 The Byker Wall with Beatrix Campbell Building Sights 1 BBC 2 1990 The Boots Wets Building with Iwona Blaswick 1990 Building Sights 1 BBC 2 The Lloyds Building with Michael Craig-Martin |