the journey of the snee snaw: from funding to park

my appearance on the radio was fun, however after i felt very wiped out, something about processing information to stay with the programme that is connected to my dyslexia. i went onto the show with the intention of mentioning the snee snaw and the arts council funding, i did both of these and had some fun into the bargain.

the radio appearance followed a productive morning on the phone. in the planning stages i used email constantly so i had a paper trail of my progress. now at the doing stage i’m finding that speaking on the phone gets to the heart of the problem very quickly and leaves one feeling a load better than reading an email.

i’m collecting logos and my design for the posters is developing and i’m enjoying th thought of seeing them all over the place in time for the performances.

i also have a visual representation of the snee snaw for publicity and web purposes. today i’ve attempted for the first time to describe it:

the explanation of the visual representation of the snee snaw is based on everything being under a blue sky, the green for outdoors, with the lower green being a focus into the snee snaw pivot point. there are pairs of all ages watching the snee snaw. the red and yellow are a balance that in front of is a clue to how to get to the sneeze condition.

i’ve invited comment about it from the manager of the first park the snee snaw will be seen in.

i feel i’m getting into a rhythm with this blog as well. in true backstage tradition i’ll be speaking about what’s going on, and after a while will add reflective thoughts. i see today that i need to do things before i can be reflective…

i rang a council office yesterday. their answer machine told me that thy were on holiday, the bins were being collected as normal, and then gave me a phone number for if i’d seen a stay dog… i do like getting insights into other people’s worlds and the really great thing of doing that at the moment is i’m not having to travel for hours each day to do it.

i had a fairly stressful start to this project yesterday, the park mix up was really getting to me. i’ve spoken to the gentleman from the first council today on the phone. i do forget that sometimes a good old fashioned chat on the phone sorts out so much more than an email.

i’m happier today, been working on the flyer design for the love parks week tour, going for a double sided a5 flyer with the rear being in landscape orientation. i’m enjoying being able to make all the visual material for the tour as i get to put a bit of me and my thinking into it. i like a bold simplicity.

font size is such a powerful tool. i think growing up around my dad is an influence in these things. he was a sign writer, had a very distinctive style, to the point of just knowing what signs he had done.

i’ve been told the subjects for the discussion this afternoon. one of them is to do with inheritance and retirement. a difficult subject for me as it feels incredibly personal. i sometimes think that i retired from event production to follow my creativity path. well at least that is one way i can interpret it, i’ll see how the mood takes me this afternoon.

i’ve been with marcel this morning.

after a walk, the working day feels like it is complete. it’s interesting how i’m aware of small triggers taking me back into another mindset, that of the artisan. i guess because i did that for so many years, the foundations of memory will continue to resonate until i have enough time completed to lay extension foundations on top of them.

the triggers have been seeing aliceson’s blog from Poland and something i decided while working on deadline critical temporary events…that being all days are big days and some are bigger than others.

i started this project with something going on i had not anticipated or even thought possible, my description of a park being widely misplaced and another completely different park being put in it’s place. today i have established that the park in question is not owned by the council with whom i was discussing it. it’s another council with whom i have an arrangement for another park already. my inexperience of this sort of situation made it quite difficult to get through it without becoming scared. i am through the worst of it now, i now know what i need to do to put things back as i need them.

it’s difficult to be flippant and jovial about things that have such a potential impact on the project. being publically accountable, the public sphere is commanded by bodies of people that set up certain expectations about these sorts of things. i wonder if i can test that a little with this project.

i think it’s important to test how things are, to adopt a slightly scientific approach to it, to test what the public sphere is like.

so any way, i’ve completed day one of a project funded by the arts council, yes i’m still getting used used to that fact. i suppose i’d wanted more bells and whistles of congratualtions and applause. i have of course received that from close colleagues and friends and family.

tomorrow i get an opportunity ti talk about the project on bbc radio derby, at 2pm, on the andy potter show.

now i’m hungry and retire to eat and relax for the day.

thank you rob for your comment, interesting you mention becoming too formal and trying not to loose a sense of humour. this comment has allowed me to contextualise the source of my nerves this morning.

the work takes place in a public park. the arts development officer i’ve been working with advised me to get permissions from councils to use their see saws in the parks that i want to place the snee snaw into. all of this was done prior to applying.

however, and here’s the rub that is causing me the concern and the thought that as a publically funded project, the moments when things do go astray should be out in the public domain… i’m waiting on one council for their formal event paperwork thing and another i’ve discovered that the information i sent through has been interpreted as another park, so in their council area i have permission on paper for the wrong park. in discovering the proper name of the park, i’ve connected with a research technique that i’ll be able to utilise in subsequent snee snaw event planning.

so for now i’m bopping in my chair to some tunes from the attached you tube file and looking forward to an afternoon of website and flyer designing. i am looking after the design of everything for this project. through other collaborations i’ve learnt about flyer size and print quality and website optimisation for mobile devices.

this project is allowing me the use of many tools in a tool box that i’ve collected over the last few years.

having shared my hightmare over the park name and eaten a dirty sandwich for lunch i feel energised and ready for the afternoon.

fish, fish, box.

music to bop on my chair to while designing flyers and completing website work.

i sit here beginning a blog i proposed to start back in march. my revised application has been successful and this week is the beginning of the project. like being in a new school, there are things i need yet don’t yet know where they are. doing the application has raised my awareness of being aware of risks of doing a project and those risks helping to manage the project, through solving them.

something i’ve been thinking about is to do with public admissions of thoughts. i wondered as the project is publically funded, should i along the way express those inner worries and concerns that worry me, so that they are shared in the public domain.

this project will not be possible without the help and collaboration of others to help me realise the goals i have set. my biggest risk is that i don’t achieve the audience figures i have set out in the application. i have a marketing strategy and part of that is an ability to add other things to it along the way. i look to the blog reading community for help and support with ideas for audience engagement and simply word of mouth help and support.

the snee snaw is a work that can be seen for what it is, so my blog here will be as it is. today as i write this i have a nervous new boy feeling and at my age it is slightly disconcerting that i can still have this feeling. having written and admitted that in a public place the nerves don’t seem quite so bad now. so this blog might well become somewhere where i come to reveal the inner things that bother me in the moment, for after all, where else can i speak of these things.

i have other communication channels for the snee snaw, twitter, facebook, a website, nearing publication and my artist page on facebook. all of those feel directly facing the public and need to have a certain line of posivity and ‘always up’, here on this a-n- blog i will need to balance that out. effectively, the readers of this blog are on the inside of the workings of the project, i’m ok with this possibly putting readers off. i guess it’s something to do with accountability, if there’s anyone out there who actually wants to know that much.

the other reason for this blog is to track myself in real time to then use it for evaluating at the end of the project. so again, i accept that not everyone will be interested in what i write.

immediately i can see something of myself in what i’ve written to do with acceptance and confidence in myself from others. i’ll keep doing what i’ve said i’ll do and write about that.

my first day in the project is daunting and exciting and i’ve another task to do soon and and and…did i say this project is funded by the arts council ? it is and i’m still getting used to that.

welcome to my backstage lounge for the project.