Collaborative Presentation

Today in our Seminar we found out that we are to do collaborative presentations of our work in the coming weeks. I have been put in a pair with a girl whose work links to mine because of it's social interest- we were told we were put together because we both had accents- but after speaking for a long time it was clear that this wasn't the case, i don't even think i have an accent. Anyway, it was interesting mainly because i haven't really spoken to this person about my work before and to a majority extent don't know hers. We both work in extremely different ways- the ethos of Bex is to relax and find the right time to make her work, for me it is more about doing something straight away and jump in the deep end without thinking. So as we have decided to make a collaborative piece of work for next Thursday this should be interesting.
Bex is interested in everyday systems (For example phoning a call centre) and in a way another link to mine is that her work can be around small amounts of angst that cannot be resolved. Her work usually comes in the form of nuggets of information that can be found, if you want to find them- my work is a lot more confrontational. Another thing that will make the out come of our collaboration more interesting.

I also had another fundraising meeting today- one of success due to the astonishing amount of money the baking Team make on their first Sale- It was around £250 and they managed to sell everything that was made. We have decided to have the bake sales once a month to generate the best income as possible- I'm trying to encourage the baking team to have themes for the next couple of sales. Joe today also announced that he was going to be organising a Christmas Fayre for the 1st December- it sounds like there are a lot of people interested in running a stall- hopefully we can make a good amount of money from this too.

Chesington world of Adventures

I am aware that this is not somewhere to be going during term-time, however my excuse is, that it is half term and i have a younger sister. I am also going to say that you have to experience different forms of hospitality to be hospitable.

 It has been a very grey day today, but being at a theme park i suppose doesn't really constitute the need for good weather- probably why they are so popular in England. It is a themed night too which the main reason we came- Halloween being this coming Sunday. So dark and dreary fits quite well.
A note on a couple of the rides that we have been on today- Dragons fury was good, although being a wet day, as you can imagine (we are in England), they had to stop letting so many people on the ride so the Que was really slow. This ride has also made me realise how much of an old fuddy duddy I'm getting. As we were on the ride i couldn't stop myself thinking about the safety of the ride. My sister was sitting next to me, which i think started me off. Its the fact that the seats are so big. I know they obviously have to make them ergonomically sound for the biggest people getting on the rides but a the same time it means as a normal sized person (Or a child) you get thrown about on this ride that is 40ft in the air! It was fun though, extra fast because of the rain.
http://www.chessington.com/explore/land-of-the-dragons/dragons-fury.aspx

I was quite upset that the small monorail that was running around the park wasn't working, this is usually one of my favorite rides- always empty and you get to look at all the nice views- instead we went on the Ferris wheel. It seemed like a good idea at first- but there was a huge puddle in our cabin and it was really cold by the time we got to the top of the wheel. By this point of the day my mum decided that we needed Ponchos. Another good ride for me was the Egyptian tomb- mainly because i won and it was inside- It was like being inside a shoot em up' game- you just had to shoot as many beetles as you could- At the end of this ride i bought one of those expensive photo keyring things to remind me of my accomplishment. What is a day out without a pointlessly expensive commercial expense. But these photo things do make you feel special, it's terrible- as if they have only taken a photo of you on the ride.

There was actually a crooked house in the theme park too- we went there last so we wouldn't have to Que and looked at the penguins on the way-  i actually remember coming here a couple of years ago for a different Halloween themed night- however the house wasn't as good as this years. The main properties of the crooked house were the mirrored room- the neon painted walls and as in the other house the bridge through the swirly tunnel that make you feel like you are falling over- however the one main difference to the house in Yarmouth that made this slightly more entertaining for me was that there were actors inside the house, popping out from cupboards and behind walls. They weren't fierce like the actors were in the London dungeon. Actually quite homely, just dressed as witches. I think this is what made the experience of this crooked house more sensational than others- because of the human influence, somewhat the attention.

thegalleryistalking -Chapter two

I forgot to mention in my previous blogs that there was a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the next steps of thegalleryistalking project. Unfortunately only 3 of us turned up to the meeting, which suggests that nobody else wants to carry on with the project this year. Also, sadly, the link that we had with the Tate Britain has been shaken up because of the staff cuts. The lady whom we have been working with up until now is involved in this shake up- so there is no real certainty for the project. The only way forward really for the project is for it to become student led, with minimal input from the Tate until things are sorted out. We have been told however that the bosses in the Tate liked the Map and would like to put it out on the gallery information desks.
The decision that we came to at the end of the meeting was that, one of us would not continue after Christmas because of other work commitments, our website man would stay in the production of the website and still work on the project but he is going on exchange for three months after Christmas also. This means that it ha been put into my hands to guide thee project through the year and try and keep it going on recruiting new members, Joe has also said that he will be part of the group this year. So we would be looking to recruit a couple of first or second year students to carry on.
I'm now in the process of organising a slide show presentation for those interested and hopefully we will get a good response. I would like the project to continue because it is a new development for art galleries to realise dyslexic access, and i am really interested in the resource making aspect of the project.

www.thegalleryistalking.org

Hitachi Private View

The private view yesterday was a very stressfully classy and entertaining evening. The Hitachi Consulting staff were all really pleased with the catalogue, as were the students (I think) and they layed on a brilliant spread of wine and nibbles.  I can honestly say that it was a very deserving crescendo to the months and months of work that everyone has put into this project and I think that Jeff (The Organiser) was very pleased. The staff and guests were all very impressed with the work, and for the first time i actually stepped back from the curatorial nit-picking and saw the show for what it was. A very good one, with some really excellent pieces of work.
 We also stopped for a drink after the show with the majority of the PV guests and exhibitors- my last role project managing was to try and find a table big enough for us to all fit around. Not the easiest of tasks and by the time i had everyone sat down, people started to leave. A couple of us stayed until a bit later and had a good drink to the project, which i feel i will start to severely miss tomorrow when i can stop thinking about it-
Here are some pictures of the evening-

Catalogue out!

Nick finally got the catalogue out to the printers yesterday and fabulously managed to half the price of the batch with a one day turn around. I don't know how he does it- but i was very impressed. The catalogue is also being sent to him at work so i don't have to worry about collecting them. Again fingers crossed that they will all be delivered in time for the PV on Wednesday! Another thing i managed to get done today for Hitachi was the finalised guest list- that is all back and sorted. So we are on course for a fabulous night.

The Map from the central page of the catalogue
(It is better quality than this)

It was our first tour of the college today after our training last week, unfortunately it was a group of potential design students, so i don't think i answered their questions too well on the tours but the presentation in the lecture theatre went quite well beforehand. I'm off to another studio meeting now, to discuss the plans for tearing the walls down...

Working with Participants

I had a tutorial the other day to look through the work i had done over the summer, and it led to some interesting questions about why i don't involve my participants in my work. My initial response was that i don't want the people that i work with outside of college to feel as if i am using them for my own discourse. Of course thinking about it i do in some ways use these people for my own gain of knowledge, experiences but i would say only as much as you would be using someone by listening to a conversation to see what they have to say.  I would say that this is an interesting boundary though.  It leads to questions that have been raised in my thesis about artist intention and when socialising with someone starts to become 'using them' my thought of this from my thesis is that at the beginning of the year Boris Johnson employed a friend to have a key arts Job. Was that an intention of knowing Boris or an intention to get a good Job with a happy coincidence?
I'm still not keen on the idea of making participatory pieces of work for the people i work with. In some ways I see it as un-ethical and it would be like using them as Guinea Pigs in an experiment. I would invite them to an exhibition and if they were too ask to be involved, they could defiantly be involved- that has happened in the past and everyone seems happy at the end of the work.
I was also told in the tutorial to try and make a mends with my studio, and use it for what it is. To be honest it is not the end of the world that the Blue Room has gone. I just slightly despise the fact that now i have to book space from my own studio, its time consuming...

Being behind

This blog is about exactly what it says on the tin. I'm behind in lots of things- I had my first thesis tutorial yesterday which went quite well considering i handed in something that was very ambiguous and incomplete, he gave me some advice about thinking about why i was writing the essay and how i should think about artists intention more from a human perspective. I think the discussion just generally calmed my nerves about it. but he gave me another hand in date for a couple of weeks time to get everything up to scratch.
The Catalogue was supposed to be sent to print on Monday, but after talking to the printers Nick found out that i had been given the wrong quote for what i wanted and it was actually going to cost twice as much. Nick is working on negotiations...
Finally, I went to senior section last night for our second meeting and only one girl turned up. When questioned if i had told them when the meeting was, i replied with yes- i sent an e-mail to everyone and set up a face book page, face book messaged, and for the girl that doesn't have Internet access, i sent a text. I don't think there was much more i could do to be honest. Hopefully I'm going to try and arrange a meeting for the week after next. It will be quite difficult to arrange it around college though. It was quite frustrating tonight because i had to come all the way back to Essex from London for nothing, and of course there is the fare to pay. I just wish they had said they couldn't make it.

Hitachi Catalogue

Fantastically my boyfriend has taken the design of the Hitachi Catalogue out of my hands. It was still at the point of not having any info or refinements on it the other day and there was a little problem about my design being very poor. He is going to mix the corporate of Hitachi with the conceptual of Chelsea- and get rid of everything purple that i put in it. He is also going to use the proper design programme on the computer and take control of lowering he price of printing. Yesterday morning we also went to the Hitachi Office at 8am to take some professional photos of the work (He is a photographer) before i had to be in college for my first seminar of the year - we also went back later that evening to finish up. It takes the pressure off of me to get it done-  however i still have to get information for the catalogue and relinquish control- which i have big issues with. I was very tired and worried by the end of yesterday, but the designs that Nick has come up with are so much more professional than mine and the photos are brilliant. I also had the opportunity to be his assistant. Although it wasn't completely a professional outfit, it was an interesting role to play- getting coffee and being in charge of the flash. We had one of those portable flash guns- only it was a couple of decades old so it was attached to a heavy box and looked like one from a spider man cartoon, brilliant.
Catalogue has to be completed by Monday. Fingers crossed we will have it done.

Thesis and Opt-in

I handed in my thesis today- a day early. You might think that i am quite proud of what i have written- this is not the case at all- I'm only handing it in early because i have to be somewhere at 8am tomorrow morning  until the contact desk closes. I managed to do about 1,300 of the 2,000 that we were supposed to hand in and it's not very polished.  I'm regretting not doing enough reading over the summer. My thesis is about funding in the arts and government hospitality with this funding which I'm finding out now is a very complex subject and i don't even know where to start. Hopefully i will have a  brain wave over the next couple of weeks and know exactly what i am doing.
Anyway, we had our studio induction meeting yesterday and most of the ideas discussed last week were taken well. It was difficult as expected- none of the 1st year students seemed to know what was going on and they just seemed to stare at the 2nd years presenting ideas- I'm still unsure if they had any input into what we had decided by the end. I was disheartened by the end of the meeting as to whether or not i wanted to stay in the opt in space, which is a shame because i have put so much time into it in the past year. I felt as if some very brash decisions were made at the end of the day that hadn't been discussed up until that point. The blue room has gone- which was part of the space last year- basically it was a space that belonged to the whole course, but attached to the opt-in space. A bit like a common room. My upset at this decision was that out of all of the space we had in the opt-in- this is the bit that i used. Not the bit that i used most, but the part that i used- full stop. I also got a very patronising response from another member of the space when i explained that i needed that space for meetings, and it is difficult to have meetings in a studio- "Were not going to stop you from inviting your friends in"- I don't think my point was understood at all.

Fundraising, Training, House Finding and Thesis

Things are slowly coming together to suggest how packed to the brim this year will be. It is only the first Monday of the working term and i haven't stopped today. We have 2,000 words to hand in on Wednesday for our thesis (A little pressure reminded to us in our third year meeting today). Something i should have taken more time on over the summer- I underestimated how busy i would be with work- not a valid excuse really, but something that i can possibly resolve by good time management now.
 On the upside though, we have found somewhere to live- I received the call during a training course on Friday morning to confirm- hopefully we will be able to move in this week- although i will probably have to leave it until the weekend now.
 The training course that i was in on Friday continued today as well. It was a course to aid public speaking and presentation skills- It was really useful, as we are just about to commence a year of prospective student presentations in the lecture theatre, which will most likely be daunting and full of in-answerable questions. The main aspect of the course that i thought was really great was that the two people that were giving the advice were graduates of our college that had started their own business doing these workshops. It did give me a bit of hope for when i leave college that i might be able to get a job or even work for myself- here's to hoping!
There is still this year to get through though- and there is lots of work to be involved with. After the stage 3 meeting we got together to talk about fundraising for the degree show. We need to raise £10-15,000 to fund everything including catalogues, drink and extras. We did have a very productive meeting though, where we spoke about positions we would like to take within the fundraising team- and lots of people were keen to put in ideas of what they could do to help. I think our first bake sale is in a week or so to start off the fundraising. So good luck bakers with that.
Better get off and continue writing my Thesis...