Blogging@11 11 11, In Remembrance, Platt Chapel, Manchester
It was decided that I would use word press and that this would then feed into exchange radical moments website. The night before the event I got my head around how to make regular posts on both and felt I had the basics to get going at the day of the event. Please follow the links below to see the word press blog and radical moments website that posted projects happening all over Europe on the day of the 11 11 11:
http://exchangeradicalmoments.wordpress.com/
At the start of the day I felt I could ease my way into writing although as more performances began and the sound in the chapel kicked off I found it difficult to keep up. On reflection it would have been easier to work with more people although we all had the freedom to document as we wished. Once the event started there was an atmosphere of silence, which made it hard to speak to people. The more was happening in the Chapel I started to use tweets with images to catch up with what was going on to post as close to the moment as possible. Half way through I got a major headache from the sound and the realization that I was always going to be behind with what was going on. I did question: what was the point of blogging a live art event?
The nature of working in real time forced me to change the way I published such as shorter posts, using images, combining texts and letting other people contribute. Two audience members gave me images they had taken of the performances to use on the blog. Another documenter Jess also contributed her writing and support until the end of the eleven performances. We laughed at some of my mobile phone images as they looked like the performers were in a prison and not the chapel. I still used the images although later when I saw the professional photographic pictures they just looked like they had been shot in a studio, so which is more a truer reflection? Anyway I gave it a go not sure if it was a success, failure or something in-between but then maybe that’s all it can ever be.
