Why is it always so late in the evening when you are desperate for sleep and one last thought hits you that you really must finish, or think through, or consider before you finally switch off the technology and try to empty your head before sleep catches you up?I have spent all day working in my day job looking at spreadsheets until my head really hurts, my eyes are fed up of seeing squares and numbers and I am desperate to progress with my challenge and find it's too late really to constructively do anything. I've looked over the Wirral Met project blog to see what has been added since they returned from Utah; the images of the artist's books look fantastic, I can't wait to hear all about it.
I looked through Emily Speed's blog last night, which I find a captivating read. I agree with her sentiments about blogging; I find that it does sharpen your thought process and it makes you look deeper into what you are doing. For me there is often an imaginary other when I am writing; I try to converse with them to clarify my thoughts and find my hands waving around to seek out the words I am looking for. I know; someone lock me up!
Having committed my idea into words and placed them in the public domain I have started to wonder if I am doing the right thing. This seems a daunting challenge, one that I have all sorts of hopes and ideas for, but can only really work if I can make connections with people who share a common interest and are willing to share time and ideas.
I have wandered from website to website this weekend, following a journey through interesting and thought provoking information, passing swiftly over those that hold no appeal and starting afresh with another Google page when it all dries up. These journeys intrigue me as much as a map, how do we select what to follow; what is it that captures our eye and entices us in?
My compact (yes, cheap!) map and guidebook arrived swiftly via Amazon yesterday and I poured over the mapped layouts of Florence and Siena and the tiny printed lettering I squint over which gives the walkways and roads the names which are familiar to those who live there or visit often. I wonder how much of the history of these places is defined in the meanings of the names; when did they first get named as they are now; have names changed over time? Do they define the activites which take place, do they reflect a history which is no longer evident?
I have sent my first message to a complete stranger; someone who blogs about her life in Florence and fantastically, (in between finishing cutting the hedge and collecting my daughter from a friends party) I received a reply with a suggested name to make contact with.
I feel like a celebration is required – just receiving a reply was a small success, although I know there is still a long way to go . . .
Well here I go, embarking on what will hopefully be an enlightening and interesting journey into how easy or challenging it is to make contact with artists in other countries, making use of the internet predominantly to make connections that will hopefully lead to realising a collaborative piece of work, or works in early June.
I have no connections to these cities, and am wondering where to start. Last night I did a lot of internet scanning, typing into Google lots of different combinations of words such as art, public art, collaborative, collaboration and artist alongside locations of Siena, Florence, Tuscany, Italy. I have no idea at present whether what I see is useful or not. I am presented with websites and information that may be current, or last edited many moons ago; how do you make a judgement based on what you see in front of you on screen?
I shall start sending out some speculative e-mails and see what I get back.
