Clouds

The weather is a great leveller. It doesn’t care how rich you are, your class, race, creed, gender or what ever people identify themselves as and by. True enough, a lot of people don’t really notice the weather or aren’t as affected by it as perhaps we all once were. Fisherman, farmers, gardeners, lighthouse keepers, post people, may still cast an eye to the forecast but largely we may not be fully aware of it on a daily level. Maybe we notice its dark and 4-30pm and raining so its winter and the bus is late or we hear of extreme weather events in the news. Somehow those extreme weather events seem to be getting more frequent.

When I lived in New Zealand a southerly wind would pick up in Christchurch and blow for days on end. An unrelenting warm southerly. As the days passed the number of car crashes would go up, hospital admissions would go up, headaches, road rage and domestic violence would all spike. As the southerly weakened these indicators would all return to normative levels and everyone would get on with their daily business and everyone would find their own way of saying ‘thank god the westerlies are back’.

I believe we are at the crux of the climate change and mental health crisis. This forms the majority of my work as an artist currently – researching and making responsive work, or work to initiate or catalyse conversations around these subjects.

When the floods of a few winters back receded peoples thoughts turned to drying out their houses and replacing essential furniture and whiteware. But what about the psychological reparations.? Very often it is the practical over the emotional which is given priority. What about the fear of it happening again? What about the stress, anxiety and PTSD?

Being at Pervasive Media Studio is allowing me the time to research the emotional aspects of weather whilst exploring the digital and attempting to create a new body of work. But, it’s never that simple. We outline things for application forms, we attempt to construct a narrative which is compelling and hopefully use enough buzz words whilst conveying enough authenticity and enthusiasm to secure the funding. Yet I make my work in the present and I respond to what’s happening in my life and around me, things are fluid, in a state of flux and, well I’m curious. So when I see an interesting alleyway or less trodden path which seems interesting I might just take it, Sometimes straying from the path is where the real adventures are found.

I digress. Since being at PMS I have completed Between Stillness and Storm – rather I have created and toured a work which bears little relationship to the original proposal but is heavily influenced by work at the studio. It is finished in this iteration but not overall. I am evaluating it and will develop it further. I am also redeveloping an old piece – sagacity – a piece which was created, successful in its release and has been waiting for life to be breathed into it. An increased understanding of digital – from having been in and around the studio – has informed my direction. I am more confident at straying from the path.

So the MET OFFICE. WOW!!

I thought I had a good understanding of the weather and its impact and reach. What did I know? I got a brief glimpse into something that seemed like a set from a sci-fi movie – or Cli-Fi –  the  weather related genre of films/books etc. Screens a-go-go. Satellite imagery, pictures of the sun in a whole load of different frequencies, all in a totally rarefied atmosphere.

So who wants to know about the weather? Loads of people. Business, organisations, transport, councils, governments. It’s not just about shall the shops get the brolly and jumpers in  but apparently in hot weather wet dog food sales declines because people want dry dog food so as not to attract flies. My favourite was forensic weather.

At the entrance to the Met Office there are screens – most informatics stuff bores me but this was quite captivating.

Fitting enough I spotted this at Exeter Central Station.

Whilst I was there I took the time to join the Meteorological Library.

The library is amazing – as you’d expect. It’s full of books yes, but papers and journals and artefacts from the history of weather. A lifetime of research awaits. I didn’t even get to the Archive. This thrill will have to wait.

Before I knew it it was time to head back north to Bristol and PMS.

How many times have we heard “Pop by, it would be lovely to see you”? Probably almost as many as the “How are you?’ which is often said and frequently not meant as the greeter moves on to the next sentence without drawing breath or indeed waiting for the pat answer of “Fine, Yeah” or some such similar trite exchange. As far as I’m concerned if you don’t want to know or not going to wait for the answer then don’t ask. Or if you do ask then be prepared for me to stop you mid next sentence and begin to tell – honestly – regardless of how good I’m feeling or how sleep deprived I am due to the night terrors I’ve been having recently.

Good hosting starts with a firm invitation. ‘Come over at 4, we’ll have coffee and cake’.

I love the weather. No doubt about it. Even more than I love Lighthouses and Keanu Reeves. Imagine how excited I was when during one of my ‘under the bonnet’ sessions it was loosely dropped into the conversation that arrangements had been made for me to visit Kaleider who can introduce me to ‘someone in the met office’ and go there for a visit. But then I was told I’d have to wait 3 months or so for the relevant checks and arrangements to be made. You can’t just turn up at the met office and go in and wander round. It’s a government establishment. It’s top secret. I’m not even sure I should be telling you this.

Above images are Kaleider and Sad Keanu

In the intervening weeks there were introductory e-mails which progressed to introductory phone calls, tentative arrangements were firmed up. In one of those coincidences I was at Bluedot Festival with my new installation Between Stillness and Storm – an installation which turned out far different from the one I proposed due to my time at PMS – where next door to the site was the MET OFFICE doing out reach – Bluedot is a SCI-ART-Music Festival. In this meeting there was a reiteration of the invite.

Hosting is really important in my humble opinion and it starts before you enter the building. I turned up at Kaleider as arranged and Jocelyn came out her meeting and welcomed me. She took me into the meeting and introduced me to Katie, Peter and Seth – the directors  – I get a bit overwhelmed with new places and new people and all that social codification. We went upstairs to the communal space, a brief tour, another couple of introductions, a cup of tea.

Why am I writing about this? Well this is incredibly important and so many organisations get it wrong, or rather don’t get it right. They assume too much, they are comfortable, or complacent, they forget what it’s like to be in that position. It’s not rocket science, it doesn’t cost anything, it just simple human interaction which makes a massive difference about how you feel. It was a brief visit as I had a pre-arranged trip to the Met Office.

Passport in hand off I went.

Again, brilliant hosting. Met at the door, offered a drink, sat down, introduced each other and then off for the tour. More about the Met Office later.

Next day back at Kaleider I felt comfortable in the space because the hosting had been so good – and it continued to be so. Perhaps some of my positive experience was due to the pre-introduction or the brokering done between PMS and Kaleider – but that just shows how successful joined up thinking is.

Most, if not all, of my access needs are around the psychological rather than the physical. I really valued Kaleiders approach of wanting to be aware but not intrusive with regards to this. This was particularly so on the Wednesday when I walked into the communal workspace to a sea of faces. Jocelyn read the situation, could see my overwhelmedness and stepped in – but simultaneously checked in with me to see what I needed to manage the situation – so as not to take over. Deft.

Later that day I had a great conversation with Seth Honnor -Artistic Director – about first impressions, hosting and accessibility amongst other things. Accessibility and Inclusion isn’t a one size fits all -everyone is different with their own specific needs and are on a continuum.

What’s this got to do with Professional Development? Well for me, without this I couldn’t engage with professional development – I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the bursary – the conditions to thrive would be absent. There are so many invisible barriers to negotiate even before I get to make work as an artist. So when organisations provide the conditions for me to thrive, to be able to make work, I really appreciate it.

As an aside I was really pleased to see this in the kitchen.

I realise how fortunate I am to be resident at PMS and who have relationships with organisations such as Kaleider which make it so enjoyable, so relatively easy to get on and be an artist without struggling against bureaucracy or ignorance or lack of flex which result in exhaustion and inability to create.

It seems ages ago I received notification of being awarded an a-n Professional Development Bursary. Back in March life seemed so different. I was going through the “Famine of Freelance” – you know – that thing no one really talks about because we have to put some kind of sheen on it all and say -‘yeah….I’m really busy……fingers in pies…..” rather than ‘ Oh Yeah!… I’ve had a few rejections….it’s really hard out there….it’s the trickle down…they had 375 applications….” I’m sick of the sheen and the bluffing.

I’m grateful for the bursary. Sometimes it is the money – or the money helps..we all have to eat and pay bills…but this bursary has allowed me to do things I wouldn’t have ordinarily got to do and the real bonus is it’s not just about the finite timescale of the bursary that I will experience the benefit.

I remember 2 and 1/2 years ago after not having had a successful application for 6 months thinking “if I don’t get something by the end of February (2015) that’s it. I’m going to give up the art of trying to make a living in the arts.”

Thankfully something turned up..something small and seemingly insignificant but it was enough….enough to give me something to hold on to…to pull me into the future. It was a catalyst which led to another piece of work and another…

Later that year I was accepted onto the Unfixed Residency in Adelaide with the Australian Network for Arts and Technology, Unlimited and Watershed Pervasive Media Studio.

I am not a digital native. I am however thanks to that residency a digital adopter or (Im)migrant.

The residency took 5 disabled Australian artists and 5 UK disabled artists to Adelaide, London and PMS at Watershed. It was the latter which really changed my life. It was as if a door had been opened, that suddenly i gained an understanding of some of the language and some of the potential of digital technology – not as a means to itself – not as the art work but as a way to support the work I made.

The above image is of a collaborative rapid prototype produced during an Unfixed Lab at PMS exploring codification of the gallery.

What was crucial here was that Watershed PMS had a brilliant attitude to disability. They were open to conversations about it, how can they do it better, they know they don’t know everything but are prepared to get it wrong as a beginning to getting right. PMS don’t do buzz word bingo, don’t tick boxes for the sake of it. I am treated as an individual, the conversations with me are about my access needs specifically and they go out their way to ensure I have the best conditions reasonably achievable to make my experience of being a resident the best it can be.

As a resident of PMS this bursary is helping me visit the studio and research digital technology so I can apply it to my practice, so that it enriches my practice and makes a contribution to my work. For me, the technology will never be the work.

So now I have just returned from visiting Kaleider in Exeter – another tech art hub in the PMS vein. PMS talked to Kaleider and brokered my visit there who in turn brokered my visit to the METOFFICE which is not only the fulfilment of a very long standing dream to be able to visit there but contributes to my  work on Climate Change and Mental Health.

So, whilst money has its place and importance, often it is the softer, human side of things that allows doors to be opened and relationships to be built.