5 months has passed between the first blog post and this one, its an enormous amount of time and the project is progressing at snails pace. Its not for lack of attempting to work, and there has been a lot of cognitive labour behind the scenes, but the physical manifestation of the project has yet to materialise. It appears (not too unexpectedly) that being a mother really does take pretty much all your time! It’s only now that my son is taking longer naps that I can finally find some time to work. After meeting another artist friend recently who said “all the bits of work I would never have counted as my practice before, work at the kitchen table, small bits here and there, they really count now”, I completely agree.
After realising the physically reality of attending an interview training course in London was out of reach I began researching local courses in Birmingham. In the depths of the internet I discovered an online course hosted by the Anderson School of Journalism in America with course tutors from all around the world including BCU (Birmingham City University). I am some what sceptical that the online course will be as informative as a person to person course, but I have realised the need to be adaptive and have bought the course. I now wait with baited breath to find a solid chunk of time to get stuck in.
I’ve also made a list of possible people to interview for the podcast, with back-ups (I’m sure I will be turned down a fair few times), and begun looking into buying the right equipment.
[pause, play, reset]
I would really like to interview my mother for the first podcast, it seems like the right place to start. She has suffered with bipolar (manic depression) ever since I have known her, which recently was re-diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder. I believe the re-diagnosis comes with more knowledge around certain mental health illnesses, and the shift towards wider awareness. I’ve already interviewed her for research earlier in the year but I’m unsure if she would agree to, or be confident enough to record a podcast. The interview would be a conversation around the changing framing of mental health and how it has impacted her over the years.
During the coming weeks I will attempt to send out a flurry of emails to get the podcast started and start getting equipment and web addresses (or at least that’s the plan).
