Useful Tactics

Hello there,

I am now going to make a note about my frame of mind and then move on swiftly.

The frame of mind I’ve dealt with over the past couple of weeks has been difficult.  I’m not great at the end of the Summer as a rule.  September is annoying because it’s a count down to my birthday.  Birthdays wouldn’t be an issue if I was a) younger, b) more successful, or c) both a and b.  Memories of what happened in 2004 and the run up to my 24th birthday constantly nudge and interrupt their way into my everyday thinking. The details of that year creep into work but I reckon I’ll have to make one big ole series of pieces that tackle all of the horror head on one day.  So that will be fun.

In addition to the general change of season, the “everything dies” thoughts and getting older, I’m exhausted.  This project has done wonders for my work ethic which is brilliant.  However I got to a point, as I’ve mentioned before in these blogs, that I’ve been doing too much.  I still made work and achieved more than expected this week but I’ve been kinder to myself in the process.

Also I’ve organised a small exhibition at the end of November and that’s cheered me up a bit.  Obviously the crowing and advertising of that will be done on this site over the next month or so.

So then about these slogans.  Ideas for them come in fits and starts.  For the week I’m about to share I made a point of disclosing that the words weren’t coming so easily.  It was at this point that I started using more of the slogans written months beforehand and were sitting around waiting to be published.

In week 6 the Rio Olympics began, I learnt about #SelfCareSunday and I attempted to give a slogan to SumOfUs for their campaign on palm oil.

 

Friday 12th August 2016 – Slogans Project Week 6

Week 6 Week 6

I’m at a point in this project where I’m struggling to get ideas for new slogans.  Which is probably apparent in this week’s collection.

Let’s get on with it then.

Last week was a whole story.  I nearly carried that idea on with a series of three slogans I’ve made but not yet published, however it didn’t feel like the right time to release those yet.  Instead my slogan for Friday 5th August 2016 is slightly in response to a comment that was made on a small spelling mistake.

I was sort of irked.  And then I thought about how correcting can be used to make someone feel small.  That corrections could be used to make someone feel like a failure.

Slogan 36 Being Corrected Does Not Mean Failure

 

Saturday 6th August and Slogan 37 Half Price On The Future

Written earlier this year it is a true story.  I thought an advert on the side of a bus exclaimed “Half Price on the Future”.

This is one of my boyfriend’s favourites as it is “It’s just sort of funny and poignant and existential and relatable all at once”.  Which is exactly what I was going for.

 

Sunday’s slogan is a little celebration about not sliding into old bad habits.  Instead of doing nothing I got a load of housework done so that I didn’t have to do all on Monday morning.  I was tired and not feeling particularly happy but I managed to make myself do all this activity and then got on with some nice work.

Additionally I was unaware until then of #SelfCareSunday so it all fitted together nicely.

Slogan 38 If You Can It Is Best Not To Give In To An Uncooperative Brain

Slogan 39 I’m Not Purposely Ignoring All The Sport

Monday’s slogan was a small nod to the fact that the Olympic Games was going on and that I hadn’t done any kind of nodding at it.

It’s kinda sad that I usually feel quite prickly toward this institution, and in fact toward most of these massive sporting events.  It’s due to the money involved and the amount of people who get screwed over.  The slave labour vs the glory of the well paid athletes.

It’s more politics and about the haves and the have nots.  It makes me sad and cross (like pretty much everything else in the world).

Having said that I broke my little viewing boycott last night for the gymnastics.  I always do because these athletes are always so impressive (Simone Biles!).  And I dare say I’ll watch the athletics because these athletes are always so impressive (Jessica Ennis-Hill!).  Aaaand I expect I’ll watch the women’s boxing because Nicola Adams! is so impressive.

 

Meanwhile the campaigning/petition toting group SumOfUs launched a new video highlighting Pepsi Co.’s use of unsustainable conflict palm oil.  So I wrote all this about it.

I HATE PALM OIL!

Slogan 40 PALM OIL, MORE LIKE FACE-PALM OIL

One of the reasons for starting this project was to make work about issues I have an issue with.  I have a particular issue with deforestation and cash crops, palm oil being perhaps the worst of the lot.  Its hidden is almost everything.

So then for those who read this stuff and would like to know more about how horrifically evil palm oil is here are a couple of links to peruse.

http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/crystal-pepsi-the-ad-they-don-t-want-you-to-see/?source=homepage

 

Wednesday’s slogan is going back into the political and socialistic and chip on my shoulder theme.

I’d not heard of the Duke of Westminster before it was announced that he’d died at the age of 65 leaving millions of pounds to his heir, who is only 25.  So there’s a young person who now owns large areas of London.

So I made this.

Slogan 41 So Few, So Many

 

And on to the last one.

Slogan 42 Misreading My Notes: Name Calling Session

This is another one I’d written a while ago.  I’d considered publishing it a few times but I wanted to release it when the right tone and mood.  This week seemed the best time given that I’ve been labeled along with a large number of people as a Trotskyite.

In this notebook I have for FWN info my scrawling handwriting turned Voice Coaching Session into what looks like Name Calling Session.

I don’t think I’m a “Trot”.

So then, this was Week 6 and another slogan will be posted in due corse on this here Slogans page http://slogansarenotanewdevice.tumblr.com

 

 

So the previous week had been a small celebration but I can see in here the beginnings of feeling worn out.

Looking at the posts on a-n.co.uk I can see that my first one introducing Useful Tactics was posted on 15th August, three days after the Week 6 blog.  My thought processes must have been out to find a bigger audience.

I’m glad I decided to start blogging on this site.
It’s great to have feedback.

I have another fully scheduled afternoon ahead but I will be posting yet another slogan a little later.

As always thank you for reading.

Cheers,
Jenny

Hello there,

Thankfully I didn’t make an actual actual promise to post more this week.  It seems that as soon as I do start talking publicly about increasing the number of work posts my ability to do so is less likely.

It’s not bad time management exactly.  More that if this were an ideal world there would be five of me with specifically programmed brains for various functions.

One for this kind of blog writing, maintaining and updating – a social media and marketing brain.  Another to do all the house work, shopping and cooking.  The next for organising and setting up of exhibitions, jobs, residencies and so on.  A fourth for fundraising, money making tasks.  And the last one (who I really want to be) gets to sit and think and make stuff all day and night.

Oh and a sixth can be added for all the self care and sleep activities.

I’m still playing catch up here.  Next week could still be busy.  Need to write a blog for week 12 later today and here I’m only up to week 5.  And then there’s that other blog about a performance which still needs putting together.  I half considered posting two weeks in the same post though it seemed too much.  Blogs of length are off putting.  However as I have no idea of the readership size for this one maybe it doesn’t matter.

Regardless.

Here is the summary for Useful Tactics Week 5.

In this week I was rather pleased with myself for working continuously on a project for a whole month.  That I’d managed to put out a picture for every day in July.  To mark this accomplishment Week 5 was a bit different.

 

Friday 5th August 2016 Slogans Project Week 5: The Slogan Story

I alluded to a story made of slogans in last week’s project round up.  And that’s exactly what I’ve done.

I had a basic idea of the story arc and then some of it happened instinctively.  So part planned part improv.  Some slogans I wrote a while ago, some were written especially.

I doubled up on the posts on this blog: http://slogansarenotanewdevice.tumblr.com  The first post showing the title and numbered slogan as usual, then a second post with a little bit of extra writing, or short chapter, to accompany the same picture.  I dunno if this worked for people.  I don’t tend to get feed back (other than a comment on a solitary spelling mistake in yesterday’s slogan), though I would very much like to know what people think about this work.

So then here are Slogans 29 – 35, seven slogans from Friday 29th July through to and including Thursday 4th August.

Part 1The Penniless Classless Artist

No identity

No money

No infamy

I am nothing but I want to be something.

 

 

Part 2 The World Is Not My Oyster

My further education began in 1999.  Four years of art school.

The government told us we could be artists.  I was told I could be an artist even though I don’t come from wealth.

I was told I could be anything I wanted.

I was told that as a young woman things would be better and easier.

THEY lied.

 

 

Part 3 You Can Stop Me From Being An Artist.
           But You Can’t Stop Me From Being Depressed.

It was like I wasn’t allowed to be an artist.  Forbidden to be a success.

Forbidden to get anywhere in the only field of work I’m any good at.

Still they can’t stop me from being very sad about it.

They can’t forbid that just yet.

 

 

Part 4 Perhaps I Am Nothing. Definitely I Have Nothing.
           Therefore, I Have Nothing Left To Lose.

A turning point.

When you are already rock bottom and then you remember that you are slightly clever.

Realising that this cleverness can help you out.

It dawns on you that you literally have no assets to lose.

You have no responsibilities like a family.

You cannot afford a house or mortgage so that’s not an issue.

So then.

Research.
Regather.
Rise.

 

 

Part 5 This Is The Voice From The Bottom Of The Well
I Didn’t Come Here I Just Fell
But I Found A Rope Ladder

So then.

Having fallen to the bottom and working out that you can’t be frightened by defeat what do you do next?

Plan, work, build.

Climb.

 

 

Part 6 WATCH OUT!

I pick myself up. I start to believe I can do stuff.  Then a new hurdle appears.

I used to think, “Oh well”.

I used to believe “I couldn’t do that. It’s too much.”

I can’t afford this uncooperative thinking.

So I’m learning how to think.

WATCH OUT!

 

 

Part 7 Unafraid, Unconcerned, Sharpening.  This Is Not A Drill.

Finding myself with a new set of thoughts.  I’ve begun to reprogram my brain to be more cooperative.

Considering to believe the positivity of action.

The story doesn’t end exactly.  Instead that old fear and discontent fades.

That injustice fuelled anger can be put to a better use.

Therefore the story goes on and continues for as long as it needs to.

FIN
and so on.

 

Thank you for reading and viewing and so forth.

I’ve been thinking about different ways of taking this project forward.  One thing that keeps coming to mind is asking for commissions.  So you there reading this, do you have an idea for a slogan you would like me to make?

If so please do add it onto this blog or send me a message/question.

And of course feedback is welcomed.

 

 

Back to 23rd September.

Yep that “thinking about different ways of taking this project forward” is still very much in my mind.  If only I had a specific brain programmed for selling work.

I’ve posted all the pictures in an album on Facebook where someone asked if I was exhibiting anywhere soon.  I wish I wish I wish.  My funds are exhausted and the year is running out.  Perhaps next year.

Well now.  Still time left today to vacuum, cook a tarka daal and come up with a new picture.

 

Thank you for reading,

Jenny

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello there,

Life and so forth meant a hectic time last week.  Therefore no blog posts here until now.

I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep but I hope to add another post or two to make up for it this week.

Where I am I in current time with Useful Tactics?
I’ve decided to rethink the project slightly as some of the pictures are more like statements than slogans.  Perhaps I should do further research into slogans and the etymology of the word.  (Some might say I should’ve done that in the first place).

On a walk a yesterday morning I thought more about that afore mentioned geocaching idea.  I keep coming back to working out the development for an app that generates slogans that depict historical moments for a specific area.  Like a digital graffiti that’s educational.

Back to the catching up of previous weeks.

So then, I’m up to Week 4

What happened between Friday 22nd – Thursday 28th July?  Oh yeah I spent the best part of the week cleaning my flat for an inspection whilst listening to the news.

Friday 29th July 2016 – Slogans Project Week 4

Wowzers I’ve consistently posted work for four weeks in a row.  Bit of a first.  Surprising how doing a project like this, being disciplined in making sure I have work to post every day, can do wonders for my brain and self esteem.

Enough of that.  Back to the job in hand.

This week in news and so forth.  It’s still all sad, bad and precarious.

So then a slogan for Friday 22nd July 2016

Slogan 22 Breaking News: Another Shit Thing Happened

Another shit thing has happened, this time in Munich.

This time it was a far right fan of Anders Behring Breivik who rampaged over the city on that Friday afternoon and evening.

 

On to Slogan 23 I Have Lost Sight Of How I Used To Be

I’m tired again.  The news is sad again.

I’ve forgotten who I am again.

This is what I wrote on Saturday.  It’s not that I don’t care.  I do care very much. That’s pretty much the reason behind this whole project.  I just felt rather worn down that day.

That whole worn down feeling is a running theme I’m afraid.

 

Slogan 24 for Sunday 24th July 2016

Happiness Is An Overwhelming Concept Sometimes

On that day I wrote the following:

I’m not sad.

This isn’t about being sad.

I’m really quite good.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be.  I should feel more floored right now but I don’t.  The World is totally fucked but I’m reasonably chirpy.  Incongruent, my natural disposition isn’t perky. I’m friendly enough, not impolite.  I don’t like the phrase but I’m a glass half empty type.  I’m good with that.

Instead I like thinking about how to fill the glass.  Is that problem solving?  I like thinking, then I think too much.  That’s the main issue/problem.

Regardless, I feel pretty ok.  Not depressed.  And then I worry that I’m not upset which is a whole other issue/problem.  Which is what this slogan is about.
Also being sad is where my best work comes from.  So yeah it’s great being happy but then I can’t make good stuff.  *sigh* OMG it’s soooooo difficult being an artist sometimes… you wouldn’t understand thoooooough.

Obviously I jest.  Obviously I have to take the piss out of myself for expressing that statement about making good work when I’m sad.

Hi ho.

 

Monday 25th July 2016

Slogan 25 Don’t Be A Hoarder

The real influence on this piece was that I had a flat inspection first thing the next day.  I spent what spare time I had over the past fortnight cleaning my flat from top to bottom.  I threw out a satisfying amount of kipple.

This lead me to think about how the same could be done in other walks of life, in industry, teaching and in particular politics.

 

Tuesday 26th July

More dreadful events in World news.

Slogan 26 Shooting Shooting Bombing Shooting

Fairly self explanatory.

I didn’t publish this next one.  It’s a variation in colour.  Please anyone who reads this, I would like an opinion on which picture colour way works best.  Please do feel free to comment.

Alternative Slogan 26 Shooting Shooting Bombing Shooting

 

Wednesday 27th July

Slogan 28 We Are Nothing And Should Be Everything

From the Karl Marx quote.
….and the Manic Street Preachers’ song.

I just sorta feel like we, the people need to remember this.  This doesn’t get pointed out nearly enough.

 

Thursday 28th July

I wrote a lot for this next one on the original blog so I’m gonna copy it again.

Slogan 28  The Sadness Will Last Forever

This week on Radio 4 the Book of the Week is Bernadette Murphy’s Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story.  After listening to today’s episode I was prompted to do a quick internet search on Mr Vincent.  During this search I learnt that Theo, Vincent’s younger brother (in case you didn’t know), reported that Vincent’s last words were “The sadness will last forever.”

More words to fit the World.

I also found out that Vincent was only 37 when he shot himself, that is took about 29 hours for him to die of that self inflicted wound.

Sadder still Theo, who was only 33, died about six months after his brother. He declined quite rapidly.  He had dementia paralytica, a nasty syphilitic infection of the brain.

At the time it was noted that the cause of death was listed as dementia paralytica caused by “heredity, chronic disease, overwork, sadness”.

Another slogan to come later and can be seen on this blog http://slogansarenotanewdevice.tumblr.com

In my personal/professional life I’ve had a trying week, or last couple of days.  Today especially has been particularly exhausting.  After a bit of a meditate all this crap has done is given me an idea and theme for next week.  A kind of story in slogans.

More on all of that coming up.

 

 

Back to present day (14/09/16).

Rereading that week it seems that I was feeling tired even then and “worn down” yet still happy that I was achieving something.

That’s useful to remember as today I am just worn down.  Lightly beaten by external influences.

I’m quite pleased with the work on Week 5 and am looking forward to posting it here.

Thank you for reading,

Jenny

 

 

 

Hello there,

Today is the eve of month three of the slogans project.  I joked this week that after 50 odd days you would think I’d run out of things to bitch about but nope.  Still going strong.

I must however, step up the retrospective weekly blogs here to get up to date.

Meanwhile this is Week 3

Friday 22nd July 2016 – Slogans Project Week 3

Another seven day round up for Slogans Are Not A New Device But They Are A Useful Tactic.

This week hasn’t really gotten better has it.  Even worse today with the current breaking news of people running around with freaking guns in Munich.  A slogan to come for that later.

 

It’s not that I’ve been lazy this week, I’m running out of new things to say.  Instead of writing new things I’ve been looking at pre-made slogans that would fit.

 

 

Starting with Friday 15th July 2016 then.

Slogan 15 No Slogan Today. Fresh Horror Prevails.

On waking up to the horrible news of another terrorist attack, this time in Nice, I thought of a lot of things to write but soon realised that it would not be good.  Then Francis Barber made pitiful comment on Twitter, using this awful event to attack Jeremy Corbyn.  Very poor taste indeed.

 

That’s the thing about Twitter, you get a sense of what people are really like.  Once upon a time you would only get a view point of a celebrity based on how they behaved in an interview but now we can see who they actually are.  In this case we see a rich person thinking it’s ok to use something horrific to exercise their own agenda.

 

That aside here was something really horrible.  But it’s no less horrible than the attacks elsewhere in the world.  Its all very fresh in Europe but we can’t lose sight of the fact that people are attacked, murdered on a regular basis in Middle Eastern countries.  And yet this isn’t reported nearly as extensively.

 

Later on Friday more unrest in Turkey. An attempted coup.  The knock on effect has been progressively more worrying.  Rounding up teachers and students, detaining them indefinitely.  Abolishing Human Rights.  Sounds like the coup was a means of setting off a full on dictatorship.  But that’s me speculating.

 

 

Onto Slogan 16 Heightened Anxiety

I wrote this slogan, or set of feelings, in response to something that had happened to me a few months ago.  It seemed appropriate to bring it out this week.  My hands and face are covered in an eczema breakout.

 

I have pompholyx, a kind of blistery eczema linked to the nervous system.  When I’ve had a shock, a sustained anxiety fuelled situation, I will get a pompholyx breakout.  But not straight away, no, about two weeks to a month later.

 

I suspect this current attack comes from the EU Referendum.  It fits timescale wise.

 

 

Sunday 17th July 2016

Slogan 16 The Mythology Of Whipping

I was thinking about how different aspects of the news are being spun and what politicians are saying to us.  They like telling us what to do to make it much easier for us.  It means we don’t need to think.  We can get on with work and being mindless.

 

Maybe I’m cynical?

 

In November last year I was at a presentation given by Deputy Chief Whip Alan Campbell to the Labour Party.  He was explaining how whipping worked in the House of Commons.  (And no I’m not going to add anything smutty although it is tempting considering all the debauched Tory rumours).

 

According to the notes I’ve made it looks like he said that making a choice when voting for or against acts and policies it a “nightmare” for MPs and that “people like being told what to do”.

 

On Monday 18th July 2016 I made this slogan. It was requested via twitter

 

Slogan 18  I <3 Politicians Who Keep Calm And Tell The Truth <3 X <3 X <3

It’s fairly self explanatory.

 

Bit of trial to get everything lined up nicely though overall quite pleased with this one.

 

 

Slogan 19  Bad Experiences, Quick Judgements

I’ve been thinking about past friendships and relationships with people whom I don’t ever want to speak to again.  Their behaviours were not good.  They were controlling.

 

It’s made me wary sometimes.  Overly so at times when I shouldn’t have been.  It’s all learning I guess.

 

In terms of news and current events, I think I’m not trusting what’s going on.  Perhaps I’m filling in too many gaps in the information given with my excessive imagination?

 

It’s all in preparation for

 

Slogan 20 Forget//Remember

I’m fed up with divide and rule.  Politicians and the media need to stop using misdirection to get away with bad deeds.  And besides we need to be fighting the likes of the tories and UKIP.

 

Or maybe the public needs to be more aware?

 

Yesterday I woke with a start at around 5am.  For a moment I thought it was much later, that I’d overslept, that I was alone in the flat.  But no, just something had woken me.  Then all these thoughts flooded into my mind.  That I was hopeless and useless and that I should’ve done more by now.

 

Slogan 21 I’m Sure I Used To Do More

So then, I did things that have been on my “To Do List” for weeks.  There are motivating red ticks all over the page for this week’s plan.  And then I went for a run.

 

Perhaps I did too much?

 

I do have more to do though.  Including a new slogan for today.

 

 

I’m still doing too much, but that’s a whole other blog.

A surprising side effect of this project is that I am generally doing more.  It must be keeping to a structure and having that specific task of producing new work daily.  The knock on effect being that other aspects of my life and habits have improved.

But that’s another blog too.

So then.  I’m off to write more slogans.

Thank you for reading,

Jenny