the journey of the snee snaw: from funding to park

research is so rewarding to do. i’m enjoying it so much i’ve been too tired at the end of the last few days to begin to contemplate some reflective words.

so now with a cup of tea, i find a few moments to note down my thoughts since the last entry.

the biggest surprise in my findings so far has been around the issue of mediation. i remember something along these lines in andrew bryant’s monthly email thingy, that at the time i read it thought oh that’s interesting.

one of the big things a year ago on the future focus programme was “how to mediate to the public” and“we’re here for the public so we have a responsibility to them”. words thrust at me with little time for discussion and deliberation with those imposing them on me, ergo little comprehension of what the hell they were talking about.

a year on, i can see that the mediation process begins with the building, it says…” here is a building in which you see art.” quite a clear loud message. in the gallery are more words, to allow the public to know that it is art.

so a year on and i’m researching in a non traditional art space. what have i learnt? without a building doing all the initial mediation for you, there is a vunerability imposed on the practioner. without words on the wall, well no walls actually again there is vunerability. in my research i have learnt that as a practioner working in non traditional art space, that mediation with the immediate environment is required. i have now developed my range of mediation equipment and will trial it over the next few days within the residency in the arboretum in derby.

proposition.

something else coming out of the research is the notion of proposition. this is within the advertising campaign for the piece. i’ve got to a point where i have instilled a proposal in the poster that further on into the poster there is a resolution of the proposal, for the proposal takes the form of a question.

what i didn’t expect to happen was a flip flop effect in realising about the proposal, it feeding back into the website design and content. and i have to add that the promotion of the work is taking up as much time as making the work and actually is becoming as enjoyable as making the work, as all the thinking and developing can now be passed on to those that i am leaving posters with. there seems to be a freedom working in non traditional art space.

reflectively, i wonder if the problem with traditional art spaces is that they are so heavily mediated by nature that developing new audiences is held back by the mediation to existing audiences.

a good friend of mine has lent me ‘essays on the blurring of art and life’ allan kaprow, edited by jeff kelly. page 53…

kapow sums up the need for mediation in non traditional art space thus:

“the power of artists is precisely the influence they wield over the fantasies of their public.”

that comes from the 1964 essay ‘the artist as a man of the world.

there are some things that change and some that stay the same….(misquote from the matrix trilogy)

i’ve felt a little behind schedule in the residency this week, however today i feel i have caught up some ground and i’m looking forward to my business mentor visiting me on friday to see the snee snaw for herself.

and once again, my favourite misquote from little miss sunshine:

“suffering makes us who we are, don’t miss out on the suffering.”

and while i remember it, start the week, monday this week, well worth a listen if you are just leaving university. the section i mean is about success. listen to it…download the pod cast…in fact i need to do that right now…

with great relief i found out the correct name for the park that has been so up in the air. with the name clarified, the all important permission has been granted. today i’m off to play in that very park, and maybe the one down the road too.

oh like to end the day on a good note.

i rang the chap at one of the parks, it’s dam handy working with a park where there’s a manager of it to contact and liaise with and in this case he’s a really excellent chap too. i’m pushing for the formal paperwork to go through. i’ve learnt that the paper work is in place for events that expect over a 1000 people to attend. it’s one of those simple formalities that can be done tomorrow, and tomorrow gets closer to the print deadline… oh this is so much fun.

i can say that now, at the close of play. first thing i had dread about whether or not i’d get anywhere today.

getting back to the phone call. apparently the neighbourhood manager emailed him asking what the devil this snee snaw thing was , and did any body know anything about it. as the park guy said, the neighbourhood guy is used to dealing with refuse and vandelism, so snee snawing in park was possibly outside the normal everyday remit.

it brought a smile to my face.

been playing with the nuts and bolts if the snee snaw this afternoon. it’s getting there. i’m living the needing an audience to complete the artistic intention bit of the project. as i stand testing the thing alone, it’s technically there, i start to wonder what the audience can bring to it…what will happen….?

a early sessation of sleep this morning has left me unsettled today, so i’ve kept the workings on the day to internal stuff. more work on sounds and programming of playback.

as i programme, i compare what i do now to where i have been. where i was, there was always a known outcome at the very beginning. now, very much like a painter or moore with his drawings, i work not knowing what the final outcome might be. this used to cause unrest within. i’m becoming more comfortable with my creative self, giving him space to make and try out stuff.

i’ve had an enjoyable day. work on communication stuff this morning and an appraisal of where the making has got to this afternoon. the working of the poster has opened my thinking to the possibility of how the poster is very much part of the work. the proposition i make in the poster of a question, being able to be solved by playing with the work. it feels very joined up and keeping me refreshed about doing all the other aspects of the project, apart from just the making of it.

so it was fitting that this afternoon, i sat with what i’ve made so far, played with it, made alterations and wrote about what i found out about it. by doing this i’m feeling better connected to what it is i am making.

( a pause to record two sneezes….phew that’s better)

i get to the end of the first week feeling good about where i am and relaxed too. this evening is the degree show opening of the university i went too. i wasn’t going to go, however upon reflection i can see that there is something for me to celebrate this evening too. two years after graduating i am working on a project, that i’m enjoying making and doing all the other essential things of our time and it’s funded by the arts council, yes the arts council no less and at a time where the mainstream media has been up until recently very doom and gloom about austerity and cuts. out of that doom and gloom there are projects happening because they have been selected.

i have been selected. i am celebrating that fact.

and i shall remember this moment in those moments to come when it all feels about to fall around my ankles and there is no belt left to hitch up the trousers and keep walking. for that is the nature of what i do and i have chosen to do that.

and the thing that makes all the difference is a small group of people by their actions saying, “yes, we like what you do, carry on and do what you do, for we like it.”

i’ve attached a link to an old favourite tooon…. please ignore the picture, it’s clichéd and not really relevant and the words i tend not to pay much attention to. what is relevant is the energy in the tooon. i’m listening to it as i write this, and it makes me feel good.

happy weekend.xx

ignore the image and don’t pay much attention to the words, it’s the energy i like