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WATERCOLOUR (2017–2018)

REALISED BETWEEN 2017–2018 ACROSS: SAUDI ARABIA, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, TURKEY, THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA, NORWAY, AND THE UK, WATERCOLOUR IS AN INTERNATIONAL (E)MAIL ART PROJECT IN WHICH FIVE PIECES OF WHITE A4 PAPER WERE PLACED ON FIVE COLOURED SEAS AROUND THE WORLD: THE RED SEA, WHITE SEA, BLACK SEA, YELLOW SEA, AND GREEN(LAND) SEA, BY PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND SCIENTISTS TO CREATE FIVE CONCEPTUAL 'WATERCOLOUR'.  INVITED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROJECT THROUGH EMAIL, PARTICIPANTS PERFORMED THE ACTION OF PLACING THEIR PAPER SUBSTRATE AGAINST THE SURFACE OF THEIR NEAREST 'COLOURED' WATER MASS. ONCE THE PAPER HAD DRIED, EACH PARTICIPANT SENT THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE UK, USING THEIR CLOSEST POSTAL SERVICE. ON THEIR ARRIVAL INTO THE UK, EACH SUBSTRATE WAS CHEMICALLY ANALYSED FOR (A)BIOTIC TRACE ELEMENTS USING AN X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETER (XRF) (A NON-DESTRUCTIVE TEST THAT QUANTIFIABLY DETERMINES MATERIAL COMPOSITION). OVER THE DURATION OF THE PROJECT CONTRIBUTIONS WERE RECEIVED FROM: DR RAMONA MARASCO AT THE KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, SAUDI ARABIA; PROFESSOR ALEXANDER TZETLIN, DR ANNA ZHADAN, NICKOLAY USOV, AND KONSTANTIN BIYAGOV AT THE WHITE SEA BIOLOGICAL STATION, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION; PROFESSOR ALI MUZAFFER FEYZIOGLU AT KARADENIZ TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, TURKEY; NICK HOBBS, AN ARTIST BASED IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY; YUJIN JU, AN ARTIST BASED IN SEOUL, THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA; AND PROFESSOR LENA HÅKANSSON AT THE UNIVERSITY CENTRE IN SVALBARD, NORWAY. WITH THANKS TO PARTICIPATORY COURIERS: DHL, THE RUSSIAN POST (Почта России), TURKISH POST (PTT), EMS, POSTEN NORGE, AND THE ROYAL MAIL; AND PARTICIPATORY SCIENTISTS: SENIOR LABORATORY TECHNICIAN ROBERT ASHURST FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD (UK) (XRF); PROFESSOR CLARE WOULDS AND DR KAREN BACON FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (UK), WHO ANALYSED THE SAMPLES USING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AND THROUGH AN OPTICAL MICROSCOPE. 

// WATERCOLOUR WRITTEN SCORE
// WATERCOLOUR DIAGRAMMATIC SCORE
​// WATERCOLOUR INSTRUCTIONS​


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​// exhibition & publication

Watercolour was exhibited at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, in 2018.

​THE xrf data also takes the form of a postal publication which can be sent to you in the mail. THIS EDITION COMPRISES: the xrf data from the paper samples, a photograph, an accompanying envelope and a hand-written note by the artist. in this publication, the XRF analysis data enumerates the composite elements of the paper’s materiality as inseparable from matter found on the substrates through their permeation, transportation, and analysis. Here, I refer to the placement of the substrates on each ‘coloured’ body of water; an action which held onto algae, mineral sediments, and minute pieces of driftwood; but also to the envelope’s postage, shipping, and HUMAN-HANDING; AN APPROACH WHICH ALLOWED HUMAN PATHOGENS, SKIN CELLS, AND ‘AIR MILES’ TO IMPERCEPTIBLY ACCUMULATE ON THEIR SURFACE. The XRF analysis was also subject to external factors, including temperature, machinic calibrations, and the sway of human observation. This publication presents the xrf data and is a (de-) and (re-) constructive meditation on the composition of objects, and their conditionality. That is, they function in a similar way to Craig Dworkin’s series of ‘fact-poems’ as seen in Twelve Erroneous Displacements and a Fact (2016), and Vilém Flusser’s premise of ‘in-formation’ as outlined in ‘Form and Material’ (2012).

// X-RAY FLOURESENCE SPECTROMETER ANALYSIS DATA

X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY (XRF) IS A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH USED FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF ROCKS, MINERALS, SEDIMENTS AND FLUIDS. IT IS USED TO DETERMINE THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MATERIAL SAMPLES WITH ABUNDANCES MEASURED IN THE PERCENTAGE OF PPM% (OR PARTS PER MILLION), WHICH SIGNIFIES THE NUMBER OF UNITS PER MILLION UNITS OF THE SUM MASS MEASURED. XRF WORKS BY MEASURING FLUORESCENT (OR SECONDARY) X-RAYS RELEASED FROM SAMPLES WHEN THEY ARE CHARGED BY HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRONS OR THE ‘ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION’ OF PRIMARY X-RAYS. THIS FLUORESCENCE CAN USED TO DETERMINE THE ABUNDANCES OF PRESENT COMPOUNDS, WHILE THE INTENSITY OF THE RAYS IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE ABUNDANCE OF THE ELEMENTS PRESENT IN THE SAMPLE. TO BEGIN, THE SAMPLES WERE IRRADIATED WITH HIGH-ENERGY SHORT WAVELENGTH RAYS WHICH CAUSED THE INNER ORBITAL SHELLS OF ATOMS TO BECOME DISPLACED. WHEN THIS HAPPENED, OUTER-SHELL ELECTRONS FILLED VACANCIES IN THE NOW UNBALANCED ATOMS WHICH ASSUMED A HIGHER ENERGY ORBITAL POSITION. THROUGHOUT THIS TRANSITION, ENERGY WAS RELEASED IN THE FORM OF A PHOTON, THE ENERGY OF WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE ENERGY DIFFERENCE OF THE TWO ORBITALS INVOLVED, AND WAS SPECIFIC TO THE ATOMS PRESENT. THIS RADIATION RELEASE WAS OF LOWER ENERGY TO THE PRIMARY X-RAYS AND TOOK THE FORM OF X-RAY FLUORESCENCE. BECAUSE THE ENERGY OF THE RELEASED PHOTON WAS DISTINCTIVE OF THE TRANSITION BETWEEN SPECIFIC ELECTRON ORBITALS, THE RESULTING FLUORESCENCE COULD BE USED TO MEASURE THE ABUNDANCES OF THE COMPOUNDS THAT WERE PRESENT IN THE SAMPLE. TO TRANSLATE THESE MATERIAL ABUNDANCES, THE SPECTROMETER THEN SENT ELECTRON ENERGY SIGNALS TO A PREAMPLIFIER, WHICH IN TURN SENT THE RECORDS TO A DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR (DSP). THE DSP COLLECTED THE SPECTRAL DATA AND FORWARDED IT TO A CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT. THE CPU ANALYSED THE SPECTRAL INFORMATION TO PRODUCE A REPRESENTATIONAL & COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE WATERCOLOUR SUBSTRATES. 



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THE EDITION IS AVAILABLE AT £20 (PLUS P&P) OR £25 (PLUS P&P) WITH PROJECT PHOTOGRAPH OF KONSTANTIN BIYAGOV WITH PIECE OF PAPER AT THE WHITE SEA BIOLOGICAL STATION AS SEEN ON THIS PAGE). PLEASE MESSAGE ME FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.  
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