Toast & Tea: Planning at Mandy's

Inviting Debate: Local Media

Your Dover are happy to follow the project. Which local paper has the  'your say' section?  Perhaps could arrange a 'talk back' interview? My methods of mediation should be responsive and not selective, hopefully the paper will give me access to non-bias opinions, spring-boards to open up the art debate or to ideas for the think tank.

Great that Joanna and Challey from KETV have an existing positive relationship. Would really like to build mutually beneficial relationships here between both organizations through the course of the project.

 Assisted Visits/Workshops

Both agree that it would be a good idea to talk to Piere regarding the contact's and relationships he built up over the course of his residency.  Would also like to contact Porchlight and the  Immigration removal centre.  

I hope to develop an affiliation with  Acyliff childrens centre perhaps working with the expectant mothers.  

Sharon's Shadow walk;   Would like to send personal invites to various community groups along with officials from DDC or Town Planning. 

 Availability for assisted visits?

Creative Strategies 

Would like to mediate with a playful and  exploratory approach. 

Excited about the image of a Suitcase. A prop, a tool or a temporary archive maybe? Terminals; "Please dont leave you bags unattended".   The possibility's of Postcards as means of thought exchange.  Group Map Making; Exploring journeying both physically and emotionally, identity and memory of place.   Collection of luggage labels as a way of recording and documenting-

1 word or a sentiment, a picture a simple expression of a big idea. PLACE.

Thinking of end event and the drawing in and celebration of the process. Not sure if i want to make this public yet.  

Need to defiantly put some planning into these ideas now, make them more tangible, Exhibition to start soon!! 

 

 Always be aware our autobiographies will determine our findings.

 The question you ask will define the question you get.

De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-On-Sea

'I don't want to be inside the gallery but out there where the people are' 

Joesph Beuys

Really impressed by the inclusive Education & Learning programming. Happy coincidence that Sharon was the artist leading the walk and talk for the Joeseph Beuys Exhibition.  I dragged  along my partner, who quite often expresses his 'Not For Me' opinions.

Thought about benefits/disadvantages of group tours.   Awareness of the domination of our experience by others, with seemingly more knowledge than steve or I. (Shall we say some were not backwards at coming forward with their opinions and seemed to take great pride in correcting Sharon at times).   What i found insightful, for my purposes, was the quieter conversations going on between visitors. Also noteworthy, a women after the tour had gone of to read the  information packs made available by DeLa. She then discussed with Sharon that had she known  Felt and Soap were often bi-products of human hair and fat from concentration camps, her whole perception of the works would have been different.  Sharon had purposely left out this information to prevent closed readings. Steve talked about how knowing the artists background and working process helped him to make the work relatable.  

I was nudged to consider; when facilitaing meaning-making experiences that are affective, how much information is to much?  

The concept of speakers corner  was inspired.   

Wandering around Dover

Having lived away from dover for a year now, i really felt the erge to re-connect to the local community to come home if you like. The sun was shining so i jumped on the train for a Dover wander from the train station to the market square end of town, where the exhibition will be, and through the underpass to the sea front. Tried to just be in the town while also being perceptive of the public that will encounter the Exhibition.

Popped into Mandy's Tea Rooms. She wasn't there but i took a scrummy piece of chocolate cake away with me.

Would like to return to pop back to have a chat about how building local community networks is an integral part of D.A.D's initiatives. To discuss the benefits of sustaining creative communities to the local business community and the possibilities of the the tearooms involvement with the box gallery and reside project.

Lots of chance meetings and chats with locals, visitors.  Where have they come from? Where are they going? What brings them here? An assortment of compelling sometimes amusing array of stories and frustrations.   I noticed the changes in the atmosphere in the market Square since the big screen. It has developed a welcoming outdoor living room feel along with qualities akin to a terminal. People seem to feel invited to reside here for a while and they do so in a multitude of ways before going of on the next part of the days journey. I think the public will be receptive to me here if i adopt a 'will you pass the time of day with me' approach, perhaps how a family natter on about Eastenders whilst in front of the TV.

Thought about the immediate surroundings of the box gallery, who passes through, where are they going. Perhaps the chalking of provocative questions on the pathway leading to or away from the gallery or a 'thought exchange' may work well here.

Need to explore appropriate and interesting methods of recording conversations and reactions

Planning: Making maps

Armed with tin felt tips and a large sheet of paper Joanna and I mapped the course of the project.  By clearing the 'fog'  a route for mediation appeared through, in and between, DAD, the artists, the installation and the public.   Joanna would also like Charlotte and I to share learning experiences, possibly leading to an interesting base for a report.   Hope i wont let any of them down but at the same time, i need to remain aware that an eagerness to please the artists or DAD, if i am to be ruled by it, can be counter-productive to the mediation process!

Thought about arts organizations and the small but often ingrained ‘not for you’ messages.   Talked over the reticence, and objections of some areas of the Dover community to previous work. Perhaps this isn’t a negative, at least they are engaged, it is an emotional response, one that can be built upon. I talked about my feelings when faced with artwork that i don't 'get' immediately and subsequent defense mechanisms.  Joanna and i both mulled over the tagging of artists as  'mad' and removed from 'normal' life and concerns of the public.  Possibly mediation  can de-mystify the artist and her work by suggesting points of access and a basis for reflection for the public to connect  the ideas of contemporary art to the concerns of contemporary living, their life. I see mediating as orchestrating creative encounters with the work that are mentally and/or physically engaging. I feel responsibility to nurture a fluid and democratic environment where ALL, regardless of academic points of reference, feel able to reflect, to explore, to question and express their well-founded and valued opinion drawn from their diverse experiences. 

Understanding my role as perhaps ‘context rather than a content provider’ perhaps is a tentative step towards remedying the alienation of the public to the artwork. 

Process base workshops?

I NEED TO GET MORE PRAGMATIC IN THE PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING OF THESE STRATERGIES NOW,  start to make community contacts,  make contact with local press to  encourage debate and get people talking about art.   Also think about accompanied visits and workshop invitations. 

 

Exhibition opens in St Omer.

I approached the exhibition as a member of the public.  I was very conscious of my knee-jerk. reaction to grapple around in my academic suitcase for  responses.  Although having said this i am an ordinary member of the public, i am not a visual artist. 

  It’s been to long since I have been to France considering my proximity to it!  It never ceases to amaze me that with great ease we can reach ‘over there’ a new country.   A childlike anticipation in remembering  mothers voice, fancy going over the ‘other side’.  Revisited the rituals of waving goodbye as the  place I call home disappears and the feelings on arrival in Calais.   I still did this in my head.  I wonder if anyone else does this and why, when we spend so long looking out from the cliffs do we also look back, in both directions is there a shared sense of  desire to move and stay still, to Look Left Look Right Look Left again?  Recall of these sensations I felt as a child from Dover, where the ‘other side’ always had some presence or closeness but always foreign and distant.

Seduced by the charm of St Omer.

Meet Charlotte  the UK mediator.  I was interested in how she would approach the public, She talked about the  welcome process not being intrusive,how some may want to talk and some not. 

There was no explanation, no forced interpretation her approach was to offer stimulus for the imagination,and keys for contemplation and reflection allowing me space to consider and develop my own individual feelings. We talked about shadows, movement and stillness, net curtains, train-station as a site for the exhibition.

I was pleasantly surprised by the visceral reaction i had to Pierres installation and was encouraged to go with it, which was very revealing of my personal baggage.

I loved the discovery of Sharon's installation, hidden in a forgotten part of the train station. The site and all its comings and goings and the work that inverted seemed to reveal more and more of its self of the time i was there.

I was impressed by the turnout, i think its fair to say the French 

generally more culturally aware or active. This will inevitably be where the Uk and French mediators role differ.

Edda instigated playtime;childhood games immediately eased the Anglo-French gap.  I may not speak french but defiantly  know how to play!  

Back home with a boot of smelly cheese, artichokes and all manner of lovely french imports.

Old habits die hard..

Thinking about the opening tomorrow and old anxiety habits have set in.  Will I be good enough, will I understand, what if I don’t “get it”,  will I sound like a stupid rambling idiot, will they regret employing me, is my  visual arts language to basic, but  I don’t speak French, what do artists wear? Arghhh help help help.  STOP.  BREATH.  LOOK.  LISTEN.  and LEARN.  it is  bewildering to me that even after four years of study i am still effected by these inhibiting thought patterns regarding involvement in contemporary arts. Perhaps this is worth remembering. 

Researching Uk and European methods of Mediation.