May is a record braking month. I sent an email out to various people in my address book asking for challenges, and have had the biggest response to date. In the course of three days on average I have received a challenge every 12 hours. Now that may not seem much but its a lot comparatively speaking. My only worry now is that later in the year people wont have any challenges to make!
Whats even better about receiving so many challenges is that so many of them are good, better than good great. It seems the quality of challenges has improved over night. Challenges range from stalking, appearing on a TV game show, walking in other people’s shoes to not using any digital technology for a week. I am spoilt for choice. The trick is to work out which one is the most challenging, wether it is physical, tactical or something more.
Of the present challenge (March) I will in theory complete one part of the challenge over the weekend. With two humble apologies to those who deserve them. The more public part of the project is still in the planning stages, I am attempting to find a site for the balloon release. I think this will require a certain amount of environmental concerns such as biodegradable balloons, and having just ordered them I am a little worried they may not be, so I will have to check on that.
Its taken a while but Ive got there. The public statement needn’t be over the top, it should be appropriate. To attribute a public statement to an apology it has to fit, be sincere. So I began to think sentimentally, perhaps ceremoniously. There are several apology’s I want to make and one is to my Nan who is no longer with us. I though how would I apologise to someone who will never hear me. Visiting the grave seemed obvious, delivering flowers to a grave was where the train of thought began. People often look to the sky when talking of the decease, so I began to think perhaps the closest I will get to her will be the sky. What is symbolic and reaches great heights, balloons. Helium balloons are released on all kinds of occasions, usually celebrations, this time however they will be released as an apology.
I will release a balloon for every apology I ow, this stands just short of 25. To the bottom of each balloon will be an apology note, letter or card. I haven’t decided on that format yet. I feel for certain people I will also need to make a gesture to them, there are four in particular. The only problem being I dont really know where these people are any more. Its appropriate to do this properly though, apologise to those who really do deserve apology’s, and symbolically apologise as the challenge suggest through a public statement / gesture for every apology I ow.
I ordered the balloons earlier. They are blue which is symbolic of sincerity. The have a single word on them ‘sorry’.
I spent many hours editing the video for the February challenge, however it just wasn’t working, so I took the decision to stop. I then thought about linking the audio track with a scrolling text panel. I went back and forth with wether this was the right decision and then decided that I would utilise the strength of the audio alongside the 2D rules I have created, acting as an installation, audio and paper signs. I am waiting for Vimeo to upload my audio and then I will put it on my website.
The image with this blog is a still from what would have been the film.
The paper prints look quite dry, but I think with the audio track playing alongside the prints it should create an atmosphere, when viewed in the right location.
For the April Challenge I have been less enthusiastic with it than other challenges, as I didn’t find any of them particularly challenging so I selected the most interesting. One challenge which I almost chose would have seen me make an image each day for a year, but I feel this is incredibly achievable, a sketch book with 365 pages and I’d be sorted. So I chose:
‘Make a whole load of challenges for other people to complete, and send you their responses as evidence.’
Challenged by Jodie Hawkes
The interesting thing about this challenge is that it was made as a Facebook comment and I dont think the challenger will be expecting me to select it. The era of Facebook is here and I think its time to utilise it, not just for marketing but also for production of art work.
I have several ideas for this challenge but I am working on a minimal budget, this is also affecting the March Challenge, so I will have to bear this in mind whilst producing and creating the work.
Have a think, and send me a May challenge, email:
[email protected]
