An extract from a conversation we had as a group, post Reading Room: meeting the universe halfway. We were trying to worry at what another version might look like that wound in more support. Practical and otherwise…
H: I definitely thought about that. I was talking to Maz last night, my friend Marigold who happened to be in Durham, which was amazing, and she was like ‘take me through it, take me through Reading Room: meeting the universe halfway. What happened?’ and so I did and she said ‘it sounds like you needed a production manager’. And then she paused and said ‘oh no, hang on, not a production manager… a stage manager, oh, no, a PA’ and we couldn’t work out from what framework we would take the idea of support. Obviously you could just say ‘an assistant’ but I was like ‘shit, would I immediately kick against that in my shitty way? because I’d be like ‘oh, assistant, I don’t like that idea’ and not just because I find hierarchy tricky because I can get over myself in that regard but –
D: it’s structurally a bit square isn’t it, as I feel it out…
V: well I have a tiny tiny experience of working with a producer…
H: yeah? What do you think about that?
A: you need such a good producer because most of the time everyone I know who has worked with producers, like more than half the time, they did not find it a good experience
V: the tiny experience I’ve had is with Becky with G, who is really incredible
A: I also know a really amazing PA, who I think does what Becky does
H: it just feels sad, though, doesn’t it? It feels somehow like a patriarchal solution… it’s like saying: you just need a wife or a secretary. I’m not saying ‘oh, such a basic suggestion, D’ because I had exactly the same thought and Maz had the same thought yesterday and I’m sure that there was a lot more infrastructural help that was needed but…
D: no, it is predictable what I’m saying… but what’s the equivalent right?
A: is there a way of building that into a structure?
D: but is there an alternative structure? It would be important to find different ways to support what that role would have supported. The PA role, I mean
G: I think that in order for this to work we would have to have done the original reading room… which is good because we did! But I feel like if the next one was outside of the PhD and was commissioned by something like a gallery… It doesn’t necessarily have to be within that institution physically but if it’s just like there is someone at that place who is also invested in it. There’s maybe a curator who just comes and checks in… or not a curator… (all laugh). God, it’s hard, isn’t it?? Yeah like the sort of thing I used to do in Bristol. Because you have the support of the body and then the little tendril between them
D: if it was a film set, you would have runners. Just saying…
