Piecing together the most interesting bits and bob of my work and ideas... VERY WORK IN PROGRESS!!

georgina starr image from- ikon gallery book- 1998

as the diploma stage assessment starts to loom upon me- need to start to draw connections from the space-in-between performance and nunnery show towards ideas for the final MA show presentation...gulp..here goes.....


so.....just flicking through my blog and free flow thought into the laptop... just posing a few notes to self about current loves/ likes/ exciting connections to keep a floating around;


in rummaging round my bookshelf found an old interest of mine- georgina starr (does this image above draw together my practice ideas ?)- i feel this image could be very emblematic for my work- many people have both talked about the chaos of thought i live in ('hyper harry world' or 'hurry harry' being names i have given been on occasions) and amount of kitsch and ornamental, old camera type bits and pieces which surround and define me in my flat.

perhaps its all becoming a mish mash of mine/participants stories articulated through personal objects (toy cameras, etc) photographic processes and imagery (projected, printed)??

maybe my performance is a series of chaotic, subversive, participatory, real/fictional stories? in a staged darkroom of sorts at WCA or site-specific (attic, den, shed, office, tent, makeshift kids dens wth a sheet between sofas, closet type space- maybe at participants home??!!) All the technology-the darkroom pieces and toys etc could all come out of a nostalgic box/suitcase and all go back into it, leaving not a trace behind, keeping it site-specific temporal and also am liking the idea- of a portable performance...mmmm....

so here's the rough rambling list;

• georgina starr- animation, musical, installation, personal stories- theatre/art blurring

• nic green- cloud piece BAC, feb 08- playful, surreal use of objects in storytelling, loss of innocence references, projection

• julia bardsley- exhibition installation and performance-pinhole photography, boxes, self and mini-self, toy animals, non-verbal live self (where in trans-acts- mediated self narrates, use of chalk to write words)
  

• uninvited guests- from nrla- working with participants material gathered via email then they take part?
  

• martin parr- favourite photographer- visual wit, subversions, irony, makes me laugh out loud- look at this for selection of imagery
  

• douglas coupland- inextricable detail to the pointless, mundane and everyday, use of humour, look at this style for storytelling
  

• tratchenberg family slide show players- new identities to strangers lives through found slides- calamity, non-sensical, vintage
  

• spalding gray- hyper self, richard pryor, stand up- intensely personal into the public

• playback theatre- although not interested in the therapy emphasis- the performance structure in the re-telling of stories
  

• mini-me, miniature world toy ideas (ways to explore the non-verbal?)
  

• about personal stories or presented as personal- authentic/inauthentic. are the stories intended to be humourous?
  

• telling stories using my toy cameras, old slide projector and digital cameras, digital projector- some kind of traditional/digital face-off akin to the cd/vinyl arguments.Or maybe present and re-present the same story using different technologies, how the technology alters the story? maybe the arkos player is one way to tell it?
  

• photography as process- darkroom processes to carry out the storytelling and found slides/others photos to initiate it- venture into toys as pinhole cameras?
  

• possibly me 'becoming' the camera in a story like a child does with their toys?
  

• use the girl guide story again for this performance? but try out with photogramming the mini-me model, find a model sized tree, park bench and the matchbox? non-verbal??
  

• intimacy- unsure whether the work is continuing to go in the one-on-one direction or for a small number?

i am wondering about the participation element which is really important to me for ideas of exchange- is this through dialogue/action in the performance or my material partly comes from others' photographs? maybe its like i re-tell the story in the participants family photo? and then they tell their version? or vice versa? mmm i quite like that .....without me ever being told about the original story (concerned about this with people i know...) who are the audience? how do i find them? mailing lists?

in the uninvited guests they ran the same structure performance containing a different set of participants stories each time which came from a group of those present- not everyones stories were used. idea to consider- extend the audience capacity? or people are invited to watch an exchange? hmmmm...not sure about that.

last point. i like the way georgina starr is sat surrounding by the objects in the above. enough now.

and yes, doug, i do need to edit ;)

my contextual references..martin parr-ty time

ok, so martin parr has to be first up, my biggest inspiration, open toed sandles and stripey socks, deadpan geeky geezer full of irony, satire, abandoned mills and boons, sun beached whales, soggy spam, pruned to death suburban rose bushes......always posing the question, 'what is britishness?' and oh i do prattle on about him more than any other photographer....and so I find myself here asking why? he makes me laugh a lot at british nature, culture, which possibly isn't always a good thing, he has been said by some to be patronising in his unsympathetic depictions of class and commodity culture. his series on 'signs of the times' was particlarly notable, asking people who considered themselves to have good taste to respond to an advert and then pose for the camera,with 80s dancing coke cans, exclusive copies of the sun left out in the living room, floral toilet paper to give the bathroom a feminine touch...... i have used his style in juxtaposing clashing commodity elements in playful visuals for gigs, and have always been fascinated by lives which pass me by on the train which look like scenes from one of his photos....the other day i was at clapham junction station where a very mean faced man was wearing a cutesy poodle t-shirt...