The audience came through a dark and very wet evening to get to our UFO East Anglian Archive talk last Wednesday evening. Dominique and I had an opportunity to show images from the Space Exchange process, talking about our experiences of what we did and what we found out. We thought of this a closing event to the project and so organised a video screening to accompany the talk. UFO related video works from Paul Graham http://www.paulgrahamphoto.co.uk and Erica Eyres http://www.ericaeyres.com/ in addition to our own video’s produced during the Space Exchange project rounding off the evening.
When we presented the talk in Liverpool the questions from the audience started with associated accounts of UFO sightings or friends sightings. The second set of questions then come in relating to the process we have undertaken and the research methodology. This talk followed the same pattern. In response to a question from the audience question: What is the work? For me the work is the site visits, the dialogue, the blog of the process, the sending in of information to Aid & Abet and the artist talks that result. The work is also the collaborative dialogue between Dominique and myself, how we decide what to do and how to do it. Our developing collaborative shorthand is also something I particularly welcome, how we talk to one another about ideas and our responses to those ideas.
The subject matter for this project is completely outside of our own practice interests. This project was a refreshing opportunity to be playful within a research process. Within being playful, our approach was congruent with our immerse approach to our own practices. We were, during the space exchange project completely absorbed with what we were doing, talking between ourselves, posting things to Aid and Abet, blogging and researching.
The last question of the evening concerned a possible scenario of what would happen if we were asked to go and research we something we didn’t want to. This is was interesting and Dominique and I both said we hadn’t considered this, of course we would have done if this had arisen. We have a list of three artist spaces to approach to see if we can offer this remote research service again. I think our methodology might change somewhat but above all its a process and one that is open to change. The unknown is an important factor, exploring sites in East Anglia we wouldn’t otherwise explore has been a real eye opener.
Our pre Christmas gathering might give us an opportunity to reflect and consider what we will do next both in terms of Touring Territories and Satellite as a whole.
Thanks to both Paul and Erica for providing video work for the evening.
Nicola Naismith
