It’s 8.39 on a bright sunny morning and I am at the studio, if only I’d been able to buy some milk on the way here it would be perfect.
I am delighted that I have been able to ‘fix’ my camera. It is a little compact one and I usually carry it with me all the time. A few weeks ago a blurry spot appeared on pictures (both in the camera and when I down loaded them to the computer). The repair shop said that it wasn’t worth repairing so while deciding what to replace it with I thought I have nothing to lose by seeing if a good firm bang would do anything to dislodge the “internal dust”. It only took one attempt to ‘fix’ it.
I am thinking of walking away from the Sandcastles in Greece project. I really am in two minds about it. I really like the other artists who are working in the project group and the project has potential to be something interesting to me (it reminds me of a performance project I was involved with over ten years ago – Frozen Progress). However I am having real problems with the context of the project. The project came out of a ‘brainstorm’ session which was part of another artist’s research project. Although we have been told that the project is entirely ours we have to submit a budget to the institution that is funding the other artist’s (“brainstorming”) research project. The deadline for submitting a budget, spending it and handing in receipts/ invoices is the end of February and this feels really forced. It has also been very hard to understand the framework for our project within the “brainstorm” research, in fact it was only earlier this week that it was clarified.
Our project group has only managed to meet twice since the initial “brainstorming” meeting and both of these meetings were spent discussing the framework and context of the project rather than the content of the project. It is very unlikely that our group can meet again before the budget deadline (the other artists have commitments that take them away from Stockholm).
What I really want is to work on the project in a different context – away from forced deadlines and weak management. This idea came up at our last group meeting. The prospect of funding is tempting but it is starting to feel wrong. It is very interesting for me to listen to myself and to be reminded that money is not everything. Integrity has always been important to me, and I am disappointed to find that it is lacking in this situation. Writing about the situation has lead me to conclude that I am going to support the idea of continuing with the project but outside of the bigger research project.
Now I’m off to a museum visit with my language school, and this evening is the opening of the art fairs ….
