Asking for help – a Re:View bursary blog

Things are happening…

I’ve had a good week with this project today – having a looming deadline and people to work with is definitely helping to push my work on.

I met Alasdair Swenson on Monday. He’s an artist who is at Salford university on the MA Creative Technology and I’m going to work with him to develop this new piece of interactive work. This part of my bursary is a delicate line, as the bursary isn’t for production, it’s for professional development. But the way I’m looking at it is that in order to take my work forward into a digital, interactive format, I need help to understand what is possible, to meet people who know how to do the things that I can’t do, so that I know how to approach them in future.

We talked lots of technical jargon, some of which I’ve heard of, others were completely new, but I now know that open frameworks, blob tracking and lots of other things exist and that what I want to make is possible. The most exciting thing was that Alasdair said that by the end of making the work, I’ll have a program that can be applied to other locations, or scaled up to bigger locations with multiple projectors. It’s this opportunity to produce work that can engage people on a larger scale that excites me. The work I’ve made by myself in the past has been limited by my own size – often the spaces I’m working in are larger, filled with many people, and my intervention as one person doesn’t have so much impact. So the possibilities this opens up will be interesting.

Alongside the more technical professional development I’ve elected to have a series of conversations with the artists Cleary & Connolly, the first of which happened on Tuesday this week. I saw the work of Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly at Dublin Contemporary in 2011. Their work uses digital, interactive, camera tracking technologies and also has an interest in movement and how the audience member is involved. They are based in Paris, so to make the best use of the bursary, we’ve arranged to have a series of skype meetings over the next few months. Our first conversation was one of getting to know each other, sharing work, processes, ideas.

It seems that we have similar occurrences when we put on interactive work – we discussed how making work about movement, often causes people to stop, stand still, watch and not move, which then means that people don’t get to experience the work.

There were a couple of references that Anne & Denis referred to that I’m going to follow up – one was a chapter from Ulysses (I tried reading the novel once, but failed) and one was about Samuel Beckett’s tramps.

I do keep on finding answers to some questions, only to be faced with more questions. Mostly to do with how the digital files interface with the equipment in the exhibition space. It wouldn’t be professional development if it was easy though, would it?

I made plans.

I now have a skype meeting with my critical mentor booked for next Monday morning and a meeting with someone who can help me develop my skills and understanding in the technical side of how to programme the work. While I was at it I also decided to commission a friend to assist with the editing of a video that I need to do for the Bluecoat exhibition, we’re meeting up in the first week of June to tick that off the list.

Asking for help: check.
Making plans not hopes. check.

Make plans, not hopes.

I’ve fallen into my usual trap where my own work is concerned.

When I’m working on other projects either with or for other people I get on with the work that I need to do, making things happen, coming up with ideas, scheduling meetings, exchanging emails, sharing the workload. Actually making things happen.

When it comes to making my own work, there isn’t the outside pressure to get on with it. I put my own work on a back burner whilst I write an application, plan a workshop, do some studio admin, complete a funding report, update a website.

But…

I have a Re:view bursary and an exhibition space to make something for, that’s recognition, an outside pressure. So why, since a flurry of successful meetings a fortnight ago, haven’t I done anything about any of it?

So here I am, using that outside pressure of this bursary and the fresh page of a Monday morning to report back.

I’ve had a couple of initial meetings with people as I try to find the right people to help me develop my skills to make the work I need to make. I met Sam Meech, an artist based in Liverpool, who does great work with people, digital technologies, projectors and art. We had a play with some projectors in the space that I’m using at the Bluecoat in July. Some things worked, some things didn’t and he suggested an excellent idea for how to present one of my works in the space.

I went to Salford University to meet Paul Sermon and his MA creative technology students to try and find someone with the right skills to help me with my interactive work. I came away with some answers but lots more questions, but that is something I need to follow up.

Following that I had a meeting with Sara-Jayne Parsons, curator at the Bluecoat, who is supporting me in the use of their Vide exhibition space. We had a chat about my plans, and she is quite flexible over how I use the space during the July – September period that the exhibition is on (I wonder if that flexibility took some of the pressure off). I also had a meeting with the Bluecoat’s technician who helped me to answer some of the questions that I came away from Salford with.

And then…

I’ve done nothing since. Why? Because it’s always harder to value the work I do by myself. A friend of mine took me to a Daniel Kitson performance last week (which was fabulous, I’d definitely recommend it), and he talked about (and I paraphrase) making plans not hopes otherwise the days just disappear and nothing will happen. So here I am, making a plan to do something.

Today.