Framestore, London, 27 May 2025

31 May 2025

A booking with Cosy Life Drawing at Framestore – “Academy Award winning visual effects house that combines talent and technology” – means lots of quick poses, with the novelty of a pre-programmed computer timing each pose and playing music…

… except this evening the person who usually operates the computer wasn’t present. After a few unsuccessful attempts to figure it out, we went through the whole first half relying on streaming music and the timer of an artist’s phone. It’s the new old-school.

The irony is that we were in a visual effects room with the most extraordinary array of high tech equipment installed around every wall, the floor and ceiling. As I quipped at the time: computerless here was like being adrift in a lifeboat with nothing to drink.

Of course none of this mattered once we were underway. Artists had their materials, I had my floor, and that’s all we ever truly need. A speaker for our music (muzak?) was improvised by propping the phone in a glass – neat hack!

Wine and crisps were generously shared at half-time. For the second half, somebody managed to get our computer overlord back running the show. However, our first half experience was a lovely reminder there’s still an essential simplicity to our practice.