'Sorry i'm late' Presentation

From last weeks discussion with Bex- today was the big day of collaborative performance.
The collaboration, we had decided was to be about the distribution of text that Bex produces in her everyday practice. Bex would throughout the week distribute information whilst i would gather (If found) and translate it into a performative piece of work. Hopefully the seminar group would also pick up on these nuggets of information.
I received a text last night- through extreme fear that i wouldn't receive any information saying:
'page 2/2
Lines are down
seek other methods'
From this, i gathered that the information was about the train strikes that have been happening in recent weeks and i decided to write a presentation/ speech about change (after all, this is what you seek from striking) I also decided it should be ambiguous, like the text that Bex had sent- as if all the people in the seminar group had received exactly the same lack of information that i had (Which it turned out that they had) and we were all in the room on a 'revalutionary hearsay' basis. Titled 'Sorry I'm late' to be the only emphasis on what i presumed the text was about:

I know, i know, I’m sorry i’m late. It was expected that i would be late, so i’m sorry but there was really nothing that i could have done. I tried to get here on time. It didn’t happen. You know how things are. It didn’t happen.

But anyway , I’m sure None of us want to be here. To be honest it took me an hour longer that in should have to get here. But we can’t be talking about why we are here, how we got here, but only how we can change the way we got here. 

WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE TO THE WAY THAT WE GOT HERE. 

It’s time that we did make a difference. If not for ourselves, but for future generations. I have younger sister. She is 10, what will happen when she is in this position? And to be honest the way the youth is like today, she’ll be there before i ever was a her age. Do you know what i mean? Children aren’t children anymore. This cannot go on forever, otherwise they will begin to get too old.

 People have rights, that is understandable. But this is why it has happened really. If people didn’t have so much freedom then they wouldn’t have the option to aggravate other peoples lives. Other people have lives, lives where they want to talk to others- tell them their ideas, their thoughts. I admit that. But they shouldn’t have to have lives that affect other’s lives...  I’m glad that you are thinking along the same lines as me. Without having common interests people are nothing. 

PEOPLE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT EACH OTHER

I read a book before. It was about France. Well, It was set in France. I’m certain. A small book, not many pages, a story book; it was about philosophy. Well. A philosophy. A philosophy about how people can affect each others lives in a detrimental way without even realising it. I remember the book because it had some really nice illustrations in it. I advise that everyone reads it. It will help with how you are feeling at the moment. Anger is only a thing that you can feel in the present text. 

This leads me to my final slide and the object of this presentation. You all came here for answers, and that's exactly what i am going to give you. Answers. The answer is of course is that there  was a consensus. Nothing that i could do about it. And only something that YOU can change. Yes you. Not me. I am here to encourage you to do something. 

Of course you may think that the reasons were right; or even just reasonable-  for these people doing what they did..., but you have to remember  why i was late this morning, why you are here and why the person  sitting next to you is here. They are here for you as much as themselves, and they are here for your children, and your children’s children.

Remember:

People are nothing without each other- We can make a change to the way we got here.

You probably have questions. I don’t blame you. I would.    If you do, please contact me by e-mail. I’m more likely to answer quicker. (Show contact slide)

Thank you for your time. (sit down)

My character was 'stumbley' and out of breath, as if it was a nightmare to get to the presentation, and i didn't allow time for questions- although i think it was quite obvious within the presentation that the character had no more information that anyone else. The work was a way of explaining the links between our normal work and i think that the similarities are mainly in language and style of dispersion of information. I know that my work is always very ambiguous and i think so is Bex's.The main difference which is quite obvious is the way we distribute our work. Mine is very controlled and 'in your face' where as Bex's is subtle and up to the viewer whether or not they take the work.
a lot more forthright with strikes and will gather as large communities to protest for others; instead of the British attitude of complaining about strikes.
Overall- feedback was very good and it was quite a good opportunity to make a piece of work with a guaranteed audience.

A little Inspiration for tomorrows performance: Brown (fantastic book)

People Like Us- The Pilot

I thought i should put a little clip of this on here- It's very good, especially this one, the actor, the photographer and estate agent. It is cringing to watch if you know anyone in these professions because the caricatures are strangely accurate.

Halloween Dress

It was Halloween over the weekend, we had a little moving in party in aid of the celebration.  I don't think i have ever worked as hard on a fancy dress costume. When i dress up for a party i always like to make the costume somewhat responsive to recent news and i thought that the bankers huge bonus's would do, as we had a couple of accountants as guests. I dressed as a 90's fat-cat/ clown (fat man pants sewn together with a hula hoop and grey suit trousers, topped off with a waistcoat, braces and hilarious tiger pants. Well i thought they were hilarious... - I also had the traditional 90's clown face paint and wig with red converse trainers- all topped off with a bowler hat) Unfortunately my costume wasn't too scary, well it was to the people that couldn't recognise me.


It's quite obvious to say that the performative side of people reveals itself to you in a party like this. You always get surprises with costumes- who dresses up and who doesn't- and of course who goes a little too far with acting the part. I think our party was a little sensationalised for a normal fancy dress party- but then with a room full of art students- what do you expect. Joe dressed as a Scout (Don't ask how this is Halloween related) and spent all night getting his scout guide out of his top pocket to give 'good scouting advice' to our guests. Also we had a guest dressed as a 'dead gym instructor' who insisted on doing aerobic dances with everyone (Using her equipment that she had bought along). Personally i love dressing up- I think that speaks for itself in my work and i don't think it is a terrible thing to say that wanting to make performance art stems from fancy dress. It was the game i played everyday at playschool, i wore a curly wig and dressed  as super girl- onto primary school i used to love going into the playroom which always had a theme. Once it was a hospital (This is the only time i can remember being told that i couldn't do something because I'm a girl- the teacher made me pass over the doctors outfit and put the nurse one on instead!) It has very strong links for me about what is fun (and to an extent educational) in my life- You learn a lot from being in others shoes- a 'costume' is going to indent how you feel, influence what you do,  influence the ways others act around you.

During my Gap year before i went to Art college, it was my ambition for the year to try and work in as many different jobs as possible- which i did; from security guard to estate agent to dinner lady to post lady, plus more-  and the thing that was always apparent to me was how polite or not people were to you. As a receptionist i was told to dress smartly and people didn't acknowledge me outside of the office at all, yet when i was a post-lady, everyone that i walked past said 'good Morning' whether i was working or not. I could start to ramble on about the Authority of clothing, but i think if you want to know more- you could look at this social experiment-
Milgram study: Which was a study done to prove that uniforms can be used as a way of social control. There was also a situation in a school in Germany, The Third Wave- where in a participatory way a teacher taught how fascism can be bred  from a minority influence situation- this started just by asking for everyone to dress alike- in  the same white shirt and actually ended very badly. there is a very good film based on this story called 'The Wave'

Anyway, moving on from fascism and back to the Halloween Party- It went very well in the end, everyone left very late and the house was a mess- but after tidying up the next day I travelled home where i then went trick or treating with my sister- obviously the other side of Halloween- for children it's the one time of the year where you can knock on your neighbours door, give them a fright and then ask them for sweets without your mum telling you off. I like to where a mask for Trick or Treating (I have a very scary looking cow mask), although the adults never really like it, i think it's because they cant be bothered to dress up- however, you get a laugh from children if they answer the door- and as i know half of the kids in the neighbourhood because of rainbows/ brownies they have begun to expect it. My sister likes me dressing up too. Well, i presume. I don't really ask her permission.

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