The dog ate my wheelchair

…Quite a few of our group members have previous experience of either working with video or being the subject of video in the past. One member even brings along his stills camera as his ‘object’. For him it has been a transformative object which allows him to express emotions visually that he might not otherwise approach. Another has been the star of quite a few videos and runs her own YouTube channel. They are a talented bunch.

I am also aware though that they don’t quite know what I have in mind. I try to explain but I’m not sure my fine art aesthetic necessarily comes across so well. This piece was always intended to straddle the conventions of popular narrative and to somehow circumvent expectation a little, whilst attempting to be true to the character of the individuals in the group. It can be a tricky tight rope walk between art and expectation sometimes in these situations but I’m hoping we can make it work.

It’s session two and I have a white paper scoop backdrop in place. I have been filming general discussion as topics have evolved, but I want a more formal arrangement too to hold this piece together. I decide it’s easier to just plough on with this approach rather than explain what and why I’m doing this. Partly because I think they have enough on their plates performing for the camera, and partly because my structure isn’t actually so formed at this point that I can exactly outline how it will work in reality. I just kind of know it will.

All the participants are generous enough to allow me to just run with this. We have lost a couple of the previous weeks attendees but that was always going to be the case. One girl decided it was a little out of her comfort zone, which is a shame as I think she would have really benefited as the project progressed, and gained in self confidence, but we just don’t have the resources to take it slow at this point. This is where we learn and can treat the project as a pilot for something potentially bigger in the future. A longer, possibly gentler evolution, would certainly benefit the less confident if we only had the luxury of more sessions and wider resources.

I am very aware that I am trying to both engage with the participants and film at the same time. Dr Vic is doing her best to act as my sound person; audio was the first to go when the budget was cut. It’s a definite make do and mend approach but one I’m not unfamiliar with. Inevitably not everything will be in perfect focus and there is bound to be some wobbly cam, but it’s a case of get on and do it.

The additional  approach of having a more formal setup with tripod and scoop allows me an element of control with lighting and more considered framing. This piece will benefit from an element of formality in the tight graphic sequences and it will also give it the production values I want to project . A glimpse into other lives it may be, but we don’t want it to look off hand and ill considered;  plus I want to be able to frame the subject and allow them to talk to camera without distraction.

It turns out some people have brought more than one object. It’s becomes a problem when a song is presented as the subject as a. there are copyright issues and b. it doesn’t really work if you’re hearing impaired! Then there is a piece of brick from the now demolished unemployment office – now that is a truly evocative object once you know what it is.

Aside from group filming we also need to work on some location pairings. The idea is that we do a couple of walkabouts around places that mean something to some of our participants. There will be short, mute pieces in the public thoroughfares for the final installation but I also wanted some longer narrative videos with sound so that the character of our subjects can come alive more. We aren’t  attempting full blown social documentary, but more glimpses into lives that you might pass on the street. In this way we hope to offer subtle inroads into narratives that might otherwise be overlooked.

Ideally we would have two pairings out of our larger group who would be featured in this way. Time limitations, practical considerations and other commitments on the part of the group means that we eventually decide on one pairing going to Tynemouth and  one single group member going on a trip around Gateshead and Jesmond Dean in Newcastle. His more singular journey in fact works out very well as we are able to counterpoint his poetry reading in a leafy enclave close to the Dean with a much more urban exploration of the back side of Gateshead where he used to sign on.

more updates to come – for locations see: 
https://getnorth2018.com/events/the-dog-ate-my-wheelchair/

Gradually the group assembles. It’s not a large group but diverse and everyone has made a real effort to be here. It’s a long time since I was in quite such a situation. It takes me back to when I first left college and worked as an art therapist. There is a mixture of anticipation and nervousness. There is also a bit of the ‘new boy/girl’ at school syndrome. I’m not totally sure what the participants imagine might happen and I think both myself and Dr Vic are fairly open minded about how it will progress.

Having said that, it would be disingenuous for me not to admit I have a germ of a structure already built in my head. The timescales are too short for us to spend as much time as I would ideally like to develop a way of working. We have had to be realistic, there are deadlines to hit and we have to produce something ‘meaningful’ in a relatively short timescale. This group may all be new to each other but they will have to gel quickly or it just isn’t going to work.

I have developed a way of working which uses objects as starting points and this is a definite ice breaker in such situations. Each participant was asked to bring along an ‘object’, a ‘thing’, that means something to them. Being that this is a group who mostly identify as disabled in some way, the implication is that it might be something that has helped or even possibly hindered them in their journey with a disability.

I am very conscious that I have no specific training in working with disability groups, but my attitude is that we are all people and that I have a lot of experience in working with a wide variety of those! Dr Victoria, CEO of Disability North, is on hand to facilitate and generally move things along so I’m not too concerned, although I am no different to any of us in the room in not quite knowing how this will go.

Looking around it’s good to see we have a good cross section of experience and age groups. So to the introductions. Gradually it becomes clear that there is also a variety of attitudes and life experiences present in the room. Some people take the position that it is best to be positive about most things in life and to show the rest of the world that it’s the ability and not the dis-ability of a person which is the most important thing to emphasis. Others offer the voice of experience and identify with both the progress that has taken place over recent years and also the various current backward steps that are evident politically and in social support. Others want to make it clear that despite it not being as immediately obvious, mental health issues can be just as debilitating as any physical impairment.

We try and negotiate a path which both acknowledges this and tries to encompass the fact that the term ‘disability’ covers such a wide range of personal affectations. ‘The dog ate my wheelchair’ hints at this in the title. Our aim is to focus on the people and their experiences, not some generic category of disability into which no one person actually fits.

Having said that, I am presented with challenges I don’t typically have when making films or chatting with/ interviewing people… I am so used to thinking in both sound and vision that when confronted with sign language I have to think again. This is to become particularly pertinent in following sessions. I am struck by the simple fact that the BSL interpreters we have are of course the centre of attention for our two hearing impaired members and consequently, when others are talking, there isn’t so obvious an interrelation with the group as a whole as I’m used to. Attention is necessarily focused  between the two signers, and this has an air of exclusivity about it which can be a barrier to wider, fluid discussion. It’s obvious, but not something I would have thought about previously. Reflecting on this after the first session I see how this might be made into something unique and positive as a framing device for our piece.

more updates to come – for locations see: 
https://getnorth2018.com/events/the-dog-ate-my-wheelchair/