After a really nice weekend off, it’s time to get the Monday morning “doing stuff” head on. I really need to focus on specific things, as lately my attention has been so refracted and I’ve not been feeling like I’ve been moving forward as much as I should be. There’s been so much going on, especially with darkroom co-op stuff – its hard not to get distracted and forget about all the other areas of work/research I’m doing.
So, I’ve kept this week free of meetings so I can concentrate on starting my ACE application, and some catching up here on my Re:view bursary progress. The first feels a bit onerous. It’ s been 3 plus years since I last applied for a GFA funding bid (unsuccessful) and I found the experience massively time-consuming and difficult. This time round with support from Gideon at Fabric, I’m feeling more positive – though looking through the application info, I must admit its hard not to let my heart sink to find out that only 45% of applications receive funding. Trying not to be too discouraged by this. Any motivational/encouraging words are gratefully accepted at this point!
In terms of writing up progress on my Re:view bursary, I thought it would be useful to revisit (and share here) what I wrote in my application in about what I wanted to achieve from it:
“I am looking to review my practice for a number of current and upcoming projects, including: a collective blog,(http:// wurblog.wordpress.com) a collaboration with family members in response to my late Nana’s photographic archive, a potluck lunch as part of PANDEMIC Leeds (an event linking art, performance and talks to the state of capitalism, economies and society) in April 2013 and a series of gift economy projects/actions in empty shop spaces in collaboration with Fabric in Bradford in July 2013 . I am looking to take stock of my activities so far, consider critical issues, and explore methodologies to enable me to successfully carry out these and future projects”
I thought it would be good to write some updates on the above projects as a starting point. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the prospect of writing up what I’ve gained from the first round of Re:view sessions feels quite challenging – given the wealth of content generated through conversations with each of my designated artists. How can I possibly capture it all? And how can I know, at this point, what is significant? Rather getting too bogged down with these questions, I thought it would help to break it down a bit, and address progress on the specific projects mentioned above. So that’s my blog plan for this week!
So firstly: Wurblog:
I started Wur blog back in March as a communal multi-author blog on gift, generosity and reciprocity. http://wurblog.wordpress.com/
My motivation for starting the blog was to share knowledge and conversations with a group of people who I have had been talking to, in real life, online (or both) about these ideas. This came from a growing realization (through doing this a-n blog) that much of my learning for this ‘Reciprocity’ project has been happening through conversation. I felt I couldn’t rightfully call the stuff I was learning my own or present it as ‘my’ research, as – who does a conversation belong to? All of the people who are having it!
From this point I have become very interested in the co-production of knowledge and Wur blog is an experiment in this kind of sharing and building of knowledge. I invited a group of around 20 people, both artists and non-artists: people who have an interest in or something to say about ideas of gift and generosity, in art, life or both. (for contributor bios http://wurblog.wordpress.com/meet-wur-authors/)
The original plan was to ask people to contribute a minimum of 1 post every two months, and then publish the posts in printed form, in a zine, which would give the writing a wider circulation beyond the internet.
.. continued next post
