∴Serial Music Update #6∴
Over the course of 2024 I’m putting together 12 photo booklets featuring pairs of images made here in Korea. I’ll release one a month from the start of 2025. This project is called Serial Music.
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I’ve been steadily chipping away at Serial Music over the last few months. I’ve been a bit quiet in sharing about it though, and as the January 1 release date for the first of the 12 booklets creeps up, my stress levels do too.
I never really know if these projects will work out, but I tell people I’m doing them and stick to my guns. What else can you do?
So here’s where I’m at! 12 sets of 40 images (so 480 images altogether) have been paired and sequenced. I’ve self-scanned the 35mm for the first 3 booklets, 120 or so frames, and done some pretty painstaking dust and scratch removal. I always knew this part of the process would be slow going, but it’s more time-consuming than I expected. I’m finessing it though, so it is streamlining a bit.
I’ve spent the last few days in InDesign working out the final design choices for the booklets. I’m keeping them pretty simple so that I can reproduce the elements across the booklets smoothly, but there are one or two flourishes I’m toying with to keep each one unique. This part of the process has been one of the most challenging for me (as it was with Dirty Work). Design remains at the heart of my insecurities when I work on these projects, but that just gives me a guiding light as to where to focus my care and attention.
I have a little something extra that will be released with each issue, but I’m staying quiet about that for now. I’ll just say despite my best efforts to find a way to produce it in Korea, the service just wasn’t available. Fortunately I had a friend traveling to the the UK where it could be done, and he muled a box all the way back for me. Thanks Pat.
Other than that, yesterday was the opening of the group exhibition Small But Smaller here in Seoul, where I have 5 of the pairs from Serial Music on display. If you happen to be nearby, I hope you check it out! It was a nice surprise to be asked if one of my images could be used for the flyer.
I can’t say for sure how much time I’ve spent on Serial Music, but it’s been a lot, and there’s for sure a lot more to come. But I’ve realized I’m kind of happiest when I’m tinkering, so stressful as it may be, I’m looking forward to the next phase of this project. Before I sign off, here are a few photos of Floor_ gallery in Yeonhui-dong, where the exhibition will be on until November 11th.
Cheers,
Chris
