Item MS 339/4/1 - Ae Phor 'act of drawing'

Creator of the digital archive ar phor. When the life of Peter Haining came to a creative end, a digital 10-year artwork commenced on 01.01.2010. Its title, and the name of the artist, were a humerous wordplay: 'A' was for 'animation', 'audio', 'artist', and the artist's name, 'aitch'. The titles of the first animations to be completed by aitch also began with A, for example, 'A 2 A: a commission for Fife Arts'. As ae phor developed and found its own distinctive style and language, each of the animations began with a letter of the alphabet, for example: 'C4 consumerism', 'D4 dinosaur', 'E4 ettrick', 'H4 hospital', 'O4 objects', 'R4 retina', and 'T4 terrain'. In addition to being playful, ae phor animations and audioworks were experimental and spontaneous, often relying on serendipity and accident to bring about resolutions and outcomes. ae phor deployed final cut pro and its associated software – soundtrack pro and dvd pro – as well as 2 adobe packages – photoshop and after effects to make productions. Limited edition DVDs of these were distributed freely to friends and archives. Digital technology encouraged and supported free distribution, which had been established as a guiding principle during DATA, because production costs were so minimal. All working files for animations and audioworks, as well as emails and various documents were archived and stored on external hard drives, which are in the National Library of Scotland collections along with the Mac desktop and software. The ae phor archive is therefore as complete a documentation of a 10-year working practice as was then possible. The ae phor digital artwork began life in Dundee, then moved south of the River Tay to Fife in 2011 where it was first located in a studio in Markinch before moving to a smaller space in Kirkcaldy. In 2014 aitch cycled down to the Scottish borders to research residential property so that he could live in the region and make a digital artwork based on the geological and political border. Thereby marking the vote for Scottish independence. This became 'Working the Border', based on a walk along the 95- mile line. From Galashiels aitch moved to Hawick, which opened up new vistas and potentials to explore creatively. After 6 months he moved again, eastwards to the coast where his animations brought together a cello and a colony of grey seals. The symbolism of rivers was a strong pull however and one with which he wanted to bring the ae phor decade to a close. Selkirk provided an ideal base from which to document the rivers Yarrow and Ettrick, these animations being completed in 2018 and 19 respectively.