Overall the structure of the piece is to comprise three short looped videos that are tailor made for thoroughfares. They are to be made short and snappy and to be intriguing enough to grab a passer-by’s attention when viewed through a window. Oh and they will be mute so any textual information needs to be big and bold. The other two videos, the ones we are calling the ‘walkabouts’ are for sit down consumption. They will be subtitled but will have a sound track that will bring our subjects into the ‘real world’. That’s the theory.
In the background there are other practical considerations. It seems a long time ago now that we were discussing venues for our piece with the GEOTN team. It is often thumbs up and all systems go at the outset of a project, but when a few hurdles appear it’s not always such an easy ride. So there goes our potential gallery space – apparently the Laing art gallery is fully committed with other work now – despite the fact that in the early days of negotiation we had been give a fair indication that it could ‘be swung.’
There does still seem to be some support from other potential venues. Dr Vic and I are sat in a meeting with Intu – the group that runs the largest shopping complex in Eldon Square in Newcastle. We were under the impression we were going to discuss which shop window we could use. But hold your dogs and wheelchairs.. this might not be so easy… better put the brakes on that chair for now. Apparently there is no available window as far as the manager is aware – window space is valuable acreage for a retailer and no one is going to give it away for free. We are sent away with a “we’ll get back to you” provoking dismal demeanors all round.
As it turns out Intu actually did come up with a window for us – they didn’t have to but they made the effort, so good for them. We can’t have it for the beginning of the GEOTN but it’s free for a few weeks so we decide to synchronise the other screens to their available dates and run for a slightly shorter period. I can already tell there is going to be a fair amount of background logistics to overcome before this thing gets onto the streets.
Good news from GEOTN. We may have a production budget smaller than a wedding videographer, but apparently there is some potential dosh for hardware acquisition. This really helps as there is nothing worse than trying to leverage favours when you don’t even have the right equipment. I price up some large monitors and we have an agreement to purchase. Eventually we also have an agreement to pay for the window vinyl’s which will need printing by an outside contractor, so we are feeling all our efforts are finally garnering some support.
Nexus run the buses and they run the metro in this part of the North East. I’ve never had any dealings with them before this project, but from an initial phone call months ago I can tell they are more than willing to do their best for us. As becomes apparent when we eventually meet, they have a long track record of sponsoring the arts and are not afraid to give creatively inclined project producers their head, allowing uncompromised work to be shown (subject to seeing it first of course!) It is a pleasure to be in a meeting where the attitude is ‘how can we make this happen’. We leave Nexus headquarters feeling particularly positive. Nexus will display our screen in the Haymarket bus station – a location that has a massive footfall. It will run, like the others, 24/7 throughout our agreed dates . I am particularly interested to think what late night inebriates might make of it as they wander through town. Hopefully it will provoke a smile at the very least.
Our third location is the Newcastle Central Library. My initial wish list had included a city central gallery space, particularly because I/we felt that it would give the project a cultural profile that is often not afforded disability related public work. I thought perhaps that having an ‘artist’ with a track record involved (i.e. me) might help with that profile and give us a more equal footing within the art establishment. I was wrong. There was not enough space apparently, even for one monitor, in a Newcastle mainstream gallery.
Never mind – the central library (a lovely, popular, modern building in the city centre) were more than happy to accommodate us, provide a street facing window and also give us space inside to playback the walkabout pieces, where we could hook up headphones too. If at first you don’t succeed…
In reality more people will probably see our piece in the library, but I am still disappointed by how disability ‘cultural’ prejudice just lived up to the usual (low) expectations again.
It would have been great to go through all the material with the group, for them to shape the way they were presented and for me to act as a conduit for their ideas. Sadly that was never going to happen within the scope of this project. Best I could do was suggest they send me any material of their own that I might include. Anything really – from stills to video shot on mobiles.
Some of the group do indeed send in some interesting stuff.. video..stills.. links to original music. This is an aspect that has such huge potential. Working with material shot over an extended period of time by the group themselves would have provided such a rich resource for us to draw from. But that of course is a much bigger and comprehensive project; one that we are hoping our experiment here will become the pilot for.
more updates to come – for locations see:
https://getnorth2018.com/events/the-dog-ate-my-wheelchair/
