Manchester Metroplitan University

We’ve had the last studio meeting ever. Hooray ! No break with tradition – it started over half an hour late. Its also becoming increasingly clear that although I was hoping for a bit of a break once our work was installed and was being assessed – there is going to be a vast amount of waiting around in case we are needed by external examiners etc. This will be rather challenging for me since I have very little patience and can’t bear wasting time. I had to do jury service last summer and it drove me mad. I had to be there from 9.30 and had to sit around till about 3 every day for 8 days – to be called on my second last day for a trial that collapsed after a few hours. I sat in a hot room grimly knitting and felt like one of the tricoteurs at the base of the guillotine. I'm also rather dismayed to find out that our results will be available part way through the show – that's going to be a fun day for us all. I've managed for most of the time not really to think about this and I know that its not terribly relevant to anything. Its just that a bad mark is a bit confidence-destroying. Still, the books are nearly done – I had a good discussion with my tutor about bindings and she’s steered me away from naffness. I have finally resolved Catriona’s book – I’ve moved away from the fabric interiors. Its very simple now – my overwhelming realisation about her being that her character has been so edited that there’s not that much left. So the book has the structure of pages but they are all cut away and the text just appears right in the centre of it. Filleted. I’ve made Robert’s book too – the text of which fades gradually out as the character fades out of the film. I need to spend the next couple of days getting my journal up to scratch – we have to hand them in on Monday morning for feedback. Oh and I managed to get some plinths made – at minimal expense and unbelievably very little effort ! Which is astonishing when I compare it with the effort its taken in the past to get access to any other facilities at the University. I now have three plinths for the princely sum of £3 each. I am going to take a break tonight though and go to a friend’s exhibition – Gill Moore is showing photographs from her recent work ‘The Chorlton Bench Project’ recording and reflecting the importance of green, communal spaces to the local area (www.gillmoorephotography.co.uk).