Artothlon, Summer 2009

A quick note to show that I haven’t disappeared – it feels like I’m just not contributing to this blog in the same way that I’d set out to do – for all sorts of reasons.

Film club tonight. It might be a one off, but it’s got to be worth a shot. Not entirely sure what we’re showing yet -we have a couple of options, but the important thing is to have an event that’s hopefully entertaining, comfy and most of all, free.

There’s been much guff talked between us and the crew about the balance between an arts residency and “reality” tv over the last week and a half.

Watching the screening last night – and then being filmed lived as the results rolled in (or maybe trickled, they reckoned they didn’t know how many public votes there were).

The camera can record facts – and then it constructs another kind of reality. Facts can be juggled and manipulated to make up someone else’s idea of what the story is or should be.

So work that was made in the studio the other night was represented in a way that fitted someone else’s viewpoint.

This is nothing new, but interesting to watch when you are the subject.

The edit is a powerful thing.

I will be wearing my whore heels in a bar tonight, launching a fictional new product on an unsuspecting public.

And my mum’s suggesting I get wax ear plugs to cut out those 6am builders.

Our project is on task, we’re really pleased with the idea, with both its form and how we intend to execute it. I’ll talk about it more after tomorrow night.

I hadn’t mentioned till now, but we’d been talking about a film club for some time – and I figured that if we didn’t commit, it’d never happen and then it’d be time to come home.

So we’ve decided to commit to Saturday night. I’ve done a flyer and we’ll show a film – dunno which one yet – with a digital projector on to the wall of the studio – and hope people will come to see. And I found popping corn in the Maxima supermarket at the Akropolis this morning – the first really big shopping mall in Lithuania.

We were hoping to go to a bar to watch the screening – but no, we’re being picked up to go to the studio to watch it there.

Once again, I’d like to be able to talk about the work – and once again, other stuff’s getting in the way.

Until five minutes ago, it looked like everything was going fine. In the last five minutes I’ve had a massive bomb thrown my way. I can’t tell you more, right now.

The lecture was good. Really good. The academic who delivered it is going to email me PDF of the paper and I’ll put it online.

I need more sleep. The workmen outside my window start at 6am sharp every morning.