University Campus Suffolk

What you gonna do when the walls come falling down,
You never move you never make a sound,
When you gonna swim with the riches that you found,
If you’re lost at sea well I hope that you drown

My message to the H+S ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

14.10 hits and I make a start, the dude never showed so I am just told to start; at this point I know that will not be able to get the whole thing done, but the head tutor was working hard to try and resolve the weekend issue so that students would be allowed in and be allowed to work.

I thought the best way to tackle the task would be to lay out a grid system; marking out 10ft spacing’s and applying two phrases within each one, works better in theory. I’d chosen 13 key phrases overall from a list of many, the 13 were punchy and were as I wanted, buzzwords that the media and government use that they think we understand but don’t, in other words, these are phrases they use when they want to confuse you. The words I’d chosen were: Double Dip, Triple Dip, Big Society, Budget Cuts, Moral Authority, Spending Cap, Lip Service, Age of Austerity, Token Gesture, Plebgate, Budget Deficit, Terror Claims, Broken Britain. Although some of these phrases are easy to work out or interpret, we are still not given a true definition for their meaning.

As requested by H+S I cordon off the area I am working in and I wear the appropriate safety gear, after half an hour in to it I realise it is going to take a lot longer than I thought, the wind had really picked up and the stencil I had had cut were blowing everywhere, no matter how many pieces of old wood and bricks I got to hold them, they just didn’t keep still, as well as this was the fact that I couldn’t get even coverage of the chalk paint, the wind was blowing half of it away and it was appearing patchy. The moment I started the piece I knew I didn’t want to do it, it just wasn’t the appropriate conditions. After two and a bit hours I was two phrases in, I had hoped to be double this by now, it was nearing 16.30 and I was feeling deflated. Then to make it worse I was told that I would have to stop at 17.00 as all the technicians were going home and I wasn’t allowed to continue un supervised, bearing in mind I had been out for nearly three hours by myself, where was the supervision then???

At this point I just felt like packing up and I went to see the tutor to see what the options were, he phoned the technician and it was decided that I was not allowed to carry on working and I would not be allowed to carry on over the weekend, so a decision about the work had to be made. The tutor said that If I wanted to I could have Monday to carry on with it and my marking would not be affected, or I could just stop, explain my reasoning, wash off what I and done and call it a day.

It would look very good to have it on the ground for the degree show but I just don’t have the time, the wind is still up and I feel it would take me longer than just Monday to complete, so my decision is to not carry on with it.

Am I being defeatist???

Probably, but that is my choice and I feel that it is the right one, I was not given enough time in the first place due to weather conditions and I would hate to produce a piece of work that is not 100%. I still have the opportunity to produce this work as it is the same Idea I will doing for the SNIP exhibition next week, as the piece will be inside, it will be a lot easier to install.

Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothing and everything all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it

Friday morning, up nice and early, on course to mirror my previous productive day and install my final piece for the show, I knew this would be an all-day event, and I wanted to get to University as soon as they opened so that I was able to make a start, as I got there I swung by the Estates office on site to make sure they had told security that I would be spraying the pavement and for them not to come and get heavy with me, cos they do not wanna be standing in between one man and his art, they’ll get hurt, and off I go to the studio’s. There I am faced with the immediate realisation that something is definitely wrong…

Some context, as it turns out, the previous night had seen a seething attack from H+S at what was going on in the studios during the open access during the evenings, that being that people were putting up their work, trying to show their work as best they could in order to impress at the Degree Show. H+S did not like this ambition and said students were abusing the open access system with dangerous activities like painting walls and hammering in nails for hanging, so Thursday evening saw the studios locked and all students told to piss off, possibly not that harshly. Of course this annoyed them and so emails were sent to the head of course from each student affected and even those who weren’t, I was totally oblivious to this, and the tutor was in early to talk to everyone. He explained it had gone beyond H+S and it was now in the hands of the head people of the University and they had chosen to close all studios after tutors and technicians go home and no access over the weekend which has always been allowed.

How this affected me though was that also on the Friday they were having an inspection from someone from the university Ofsted equivalent, and I was asked if I would kindly wait until after 2pm before starting my work outside, all week I have had to fight to get on and it had finally brightened up and wasn’t raining, I was in early to get on with it and get it done and I am still asked to wait.

And the bastard didn’t even check our block, or if he did, no one saw him!!!

PISSED!!!

Satisfy me with your wit
Tell me tales of grime and grit
Birds fly high to catch the sun
We can try it when were done

Congregate the fools you know
With your heart and with your soul
Go get lost and feel at home
Makes more sense when you’re alone

I wanted to create a space where surveillance was concentrated to such a point, you felt saturated by the impact of the cameras. The space was set up and I was ready to hang the cameras, I laid the cameras on the floor to try and work out some sort of order, there seemed to be so many more cameras than I remembered making. Now… do I lay them out in a way that makes them symmetrical, or do I place them randomly?

What I have learnt… it’s a pain in the arse to try and make things random as your eye constantly wants to follow a pattern. I found a third option, planned randomness, just a few little tweaks and I had it laid out in a way that I thought it would work.

Hanging the cameras was very simple, drill a hole, place a plug in, add a screw and hang, it really took no time at all and what was, up to that point, a wasted week had now become a worthwhile fight as the display looks awesome. Every now and again during the hanging I would step back just to make sure the constellation of cameras was still visually working and apart from a couple of minor adjustments at the end, all went smoothly.

I was very much taken back at the amount of interest I had received whilst hanging them, students and tutors from other courses were going out of their way to talk to me about my work, taking a real interest in their meaning and telling me how it made them feel. The work is meant to make the viewer feel unease, I have captured these cameras from their wild environment and chosen to hang them as trophies, mirroring the traditional display of the classic hunting lodge, but we know these objects, we know they record our every movement and in placing them in an enclosed environment, where the cameras are clustered together, the viewer is faced with the idea that they could still be recording, taking away their freedom to look at the work and show what they perhaps really think, not wanting to reveal their true feelings.

Passing comments of ‘creepy’ and ‘you feel like you are constantly being watched’ by other students only cemented my intended meaning for these works and I am very proud of what it has so far achieved just throughout the limited amount of people that have seen the works, I think it’s a great addition to the degree show and should get the masses talking come opening night.

And to answer the question of the people who asked… Yes, they are for sale.

I need the Dollar, Dollar, Dollar that’s what i need.

We’ve come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you baby,
I have to praise you like I should…

Praise be to the one who has Health and Safety on their back!

Thursday hits, installation day, preparing my space for a makeover of EPIC proportions, which was a lot easier than it appeared to be for the Photography lot who were installing works over at the Waterfront building… The Fine Art course has been hassled by Health and Safety for most of the year, students have been told NO on many many occasions due to the nature of their work, also Health and Safety have felt it’s an appropriate time, one week before assessment, to crack down on everything, from no using power tools ie: Drills in the studio, to no eating and drinking in studios. I totally understand that Health and Safety is here to stay and we must abide by their rules, but it has become so petty this week to the point where Photography had to down tools and stop working due to them using the wrong type of dust sheet when drilling in to chipboard. I was unaware of such choices in dust sheets. Emails were sent to all department heads explaining that no student should be using power tools in studios, and when painting walls with emulsion, eye protection, gloves and ventilation masks must be worn.

So it was probably a good thing that H + S were at the Waterfront building because during my installing of my cameras I broke all the rules…

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I’ll never look into your eyes again

So this week has been the final week of the course and what a week it has been, last week was bad enough, what with the blog hand in deadline and the starting of setting up the degree show for everyone…

On a side note: My blog was very last minute and not too detailed I know this, however, I did get some good feedback for one of my posts from the tutor who is marking them, so maybe some are an enjoyable read, not all bad, I think it’s my wit and humor LOL!!!

Can you put LOL in a university blog… too late, I just did.

I’ll bring you up to speed from last week, last week I could do nothing, I was planning on doing something, but that ended as I hit a predicament where the space I was due to display my work in suddenly became ‘unavailable’, it later turns out that this space was to be used for a promotional poster, a promotional poster? A promotional poster!!!… Sorry, sounds silly when I write it, hmmm, a piece of degree show work, or a poster???

So whilst I was getting my blog together, I was also trying to locate other areas that my work could go till I knew what was happening, which wasn’t going to be till Tuesday because of Bank Holiday Monday. Tuesday arrives…

BAD NEWS

The space is to be used to promote the Universities Degree Show, the course has finished, no students are occupying the block apart from the final year that are setting up degree show and to promote the show they are going to stick a poster inside the hallway of a building that no one is walking through. So plan B: The email of disappointment. All credit is due to the tutor at this point who argued my case, but I did have to send him an email saying how deeply disappointed I was that I could not use the space I intended, outlining my proposal, why it was suited there, why no other area worked and that would then be passed on to the person who wanted the space for a poster. At this point its late Tuesday and I am still yet to make a start on setting up my actual degree show, my second works for the degree show, that being the spray painted walkway I am yet to make a start on due to the rather shitty weather that is taking place in the final week of June, sun is on the horizon, but not until Friday.

MORE BAD NEWS

Wednesday hits and there is still no answer, I am still waiting and am filling my time with helping other students prepare their spaces and hang their work. Finally there is some news and it appears that they believe there are other spaces my work can go, so we are going on a tour of the building to view other possibilities.

OUTCOME

No other spaces

STILL WAITING

Finally late Wednesday afternoon I am given the go ahead to have the space, which left me with enough time to move a cabinet from the space, fill all the holes and paint the wall white.

YAY!!