David Bethell has been selected for the Talking City Com:mission Intervention.

The Com:missions explore the impact that one artist can make in one place, in one day. The com:missions are designed to investigate the impact of short, sharp interventions within the public realm, and question how working quickly and responsively feels for the artist.

Here is the documentation of his Com:mission:

Aiming to set off from the sea lion in Ipstones to Foxt at 3pm, we left the pub with curious punters wondering why I was carrying a road roller. I replied “why to roll a road”.  My dress code was that of a working man. A little ironic as they all think I am a bit of a bum.  So the journey had begun just after 3pm. Armed with a make shift road roller and a camera crew followed by a few good friends, I was off.

Having completed the construction of the road roller just after 2:30pm after 3 hours of  continuous working I had made a horse drawn road roller based on the traditional design apart my version was made from six 6 ft pieces of wood, twine, two cart wheels, cardboard and a broom handle. All brought within one hour from two shops, one of the quickest shopping sprees known to man.

I did wonder how my contraption would work and how long it would last. Would it last the whole duration of the walk, approximately 1 half miles through mud, make shift paths and the odd cattle grid. Or would it fall apart within minutes of the starting point.  It was an interesting and amusing experiment. As the design and the way I constructed the road roller has been specifically made not to last. Thus questioning the craftsmanship but questioning my body and my work ethic.

Having decided on the idea a few weeks ago I was glad to see that my construction was not a million miles away from my design. I was relatively pleased. The work had stemmed from my previous piece of work ‘Plough’ made for Interrogation Walsall.  The work was still questioning some of the same issues, such as the craftsmanship and the quality of a product, and the machine against a location whilst also looking at the potential of a space.

So back to the beginning of the story, I set off just past 3pm with a few odd looks. The moment to test how well the road roller would roll had come to pass. The result was a success. I was pleased. It did actually roll! So now which one of us would collapse first was the next question, would it be me or would it be the road roller? The first challenge was a hill followed by small bridge, All clear. Whilst I was rolling and roaming the countryside, I began to think how romantic the work was and how the work would look both as a film and as a set of photographs but I also enjoyed the fact that I had taken this root many times when I was a lot younger. I was re rolling my memories. I did think that it would be terrible if a road was actually built here.

The reason for choosing this specific path was to both celebrate the Staffordshire Moorland’ s rural landscape and its agricultural landscape relating to the farming industry, but the path would also take me through worn tracks made from grass, soil, bits of stone,  and rock. This would hopefully give me a path that was both rural and  slightly urban at the same time.
As the path got longer my legs began to ache and the road roller had little marks on it apart from mud. The machine was doing a little better than I expected! O dear! At least it was a labour of love for me rather than a just hard plain work. I thought back to my proposal as I stated that I did want this to symbolise the decline and the loss of labour intensive jobs during the recession.

During the walk, we didn’t come across anyone apart from two young ladies and a dog. Their expressions were lit by bemusement. I said nothing and carried on my way. I hope they thought ‘that man isn’t going to destroy our woods with that machine.’ Even if I wanted to I do not think the road roller was capable of doing so.

Once I entered the woods the road roller had started to deteriorate and once it started there was no stopping it.  I think this was mainly due to me trying to roll a set of a stairs and some boulders along the way. Once the roller had hit the self destruct button, I came to a halt, out of breath and relieved that my work had fallen before I did. This happened approximately at the half way stage.

I carried the remains to Foxt; as I am sure that there maybe a mark two version at a later date. We didn’t really see anyone apart from the odd person walking their dog, again looking bemused. I suppose it’s not every day you see someone carrying bits of wood, twine, wheels and cardboard dressed in orange pants.  It must have looked a bit odd, but if they had seen the Road Roller then it would have been perfectly normal.

What I enjoyed most about the project was the fact that I had to work within a really short time period and within a tight budget; this made and gave my work the feel that I was after.  I will also be looking to do another version of Road Roller within a different location.  This may take the form of a disused Railway or along a canal.  This may help me and my work encounter a few more people, if I were to do it on the Canal anyway. As I felt there could have been more people that saw the work, either as an audience or as onlookers. I suppose this is down to choosing the right location.  I am pleased with how my work has developed for this project and I am sure I will develop the work even further, both considering my presence as the performer and the location. I will also look more at my costume and what I am wearing. I will also give more warning to people that wish to come and see the performance and research the location first. The previous location that I chose for this performancewas a disused railway, but it reopened on the day that I wanted to carry out the performance. A lesson to be learnt there.

I hope you have enjoyed this story.

Click here to go to David Bethells’ website

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

MADE presentation – Worcester the making of a modern city

Nathaniel Pitt has been asked to give a talk at the MADE symposium ‘Worcester – Building a Modern City’ which takes place on Tuesday, 30th March 2010.  As one of the original Interrogation agents, Agent Pitt made contact and invited us to come over and Interrogate the public art of Worcester. A contact point was established, and Agent Pitt, Agent Orange, Agent Winnett and I met up – the video piece above was the result of the days interrogation.

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

The homogenisation of cities around the world means that wherever you go, you find the same fast food restaurants, clothes shops and big names. I was reading about Sao Paulo where the city officials  banned commercial businesses from advertising on the street. It was part of a ‘Clean City Law’ pioneered by the city’s conservative mayor, Gilberto Kassab.

“”The Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution . . . pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector – visual pollution.”

This has meant that billboards, outdoor video screens and the allowable size of shop signage have been drastically reduced. I think the idea of ‘visual pollution’ is an interesting one, and in many ways I can see the sense of this. It is the richest companies that litter our public space with their messages – but the smaller businesses could also lose out as a result of the law. It may be that the consumer will not know about the business in order to access it.

In Tokyo much of the signage is in Japanese, and not necessarily Western Friendly (no bad thing perhaps – and of course combating the homogenisation discussed earlier) but what this means is that the tourist misses out on many wonderful eateries and hostelries – many of which are not ground floor based – so you cannot look in to the shopfront to see what is within. This and perhaps the way our city centres are becoming more and more the same is what moved me to start this project – celebrating the shop window. In particular I enjoy the small, one-off business, where the individual identity of the window perhaps reflects the owner’s particular taste and sensibility.

This started in Prague in 2008. Previous to this I had been photographing individual buildings- putting together all of the buildings on the street. I was interested in the entirety of the ‘high street’ and the individuality of buildings in relation to an art spaces location on the street (see above – Broad Street in Stoke-on-Trent) – but then became fascinated by the individual windows. They are stage sets; communicating a narrative to the public. The first one which I became infatuated with was the window of the Bila Labut department store in Prague, (above – taken Feb. 2008) which was just around the corner from a hotel I was staying in. I took a few images of the windows at night – but without my tripod I could not achieve exactly what I wanted.

I returned to Prague at the beginning of the month (March 2010) – this time with a tripod, and my camera and wide angle lens, determined to collect some of the fantastic Talking Windows there. This project will continue, as I am determined to document the wonderful, unique windows in City Centres – before they die out.

I have found that they look more dramatic when lit up at night, but this too is something that is disappearing, as environmentalists push for light use in cities at night to be reduced, in order to lessen the carbon footprints – something which ethically I agree with, but what a loss visually!

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Anna Francis will be exchanging with Justin A. Langlois, Research director for Broken City Lab. Broken City Lab is an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research group that tactically disrupts and engages the city, its communities, and its infrastructures to reimagine the potential for action in the collapsing post-industrial city of Windsor, Ontario.

THE CONVERSATION

AF: How did Broken City Lab come about? Do you describe yourselves as artists, cultural animators, activists or something else? Also, I like that you point out the difference between what you do, and what ‘city officials, or social workers, or politicians’ do. Have you found yourself in positions where you have been expected to do the work of these, and how do you negotiate that?

JL: Broken City Lab came out of a conversation I was having with my partner, Danielle Sabelli, about the role or perhaps the potential of protest for enacting social change. I wasn’t convinced that protest remains a valid model for generating change, but I kind of struggled to come up with an alternative. The conversation went on and together Danielle and I imagined this kind of collective and very engaged level of activity focused on creating change in a place like Windsor. Afterwards, I sat down and wrote a page on what this collective could do and I titled it, “Broken City Lab.”

Danielle has a background in visual arts and I was completing my MFA in visual arts at the time, so the things that we imagined Broken City Lab would do were very much based in artistic process. As well, some of the other people we asked to join in with us early on were also visual arts students, and while we certainly take on projects that are legible as activism, we work within an artistic practice.

On the same note, I often find that the projects we take on are read differently by different people, and in some ways we enjoy that confusion, but in other ways it creates an expectation on what we do that we’re not really interested in fulfilling. I read an interview on Art21 with Sam Gould (http://blog.art21.org/2009/08/17/sam-gould-red76/) where he noted that this type of practice often leads to two questions from two different camps — the artists question your sincerity in making art and the activists question your efficacy to actually generate change. For us, we’re really less interested in working within or questioning traditional art practice, or in really generating any large scale social or political change. We feel that our projects change us through the work involved in realizing them, and through these projects we also feel some ownership over the city and our place within it. So, to better articulate this idea of taking on the role of city officials, or social workers, or politicians, I suppose we take on those roles to the extent that we imagine them being manageable to, at least momentarily, change the way we experience the city.

AF: I watched a program that was on the BBC the other night called ‘Requiem for Detroit.’ It was all about the deindustrialisation process and how it has had such a massively devastating impact on the area. Is Windsor affected similarly? I think there is a really interesting conversation to be developed between our two cities. Stoke-on-Trent is known worldwide as the Potteries, as for over past 100 years the city thrived on it’s industry of pot making (Royal Doulton, Spode, Wedgewood and Minton to name a few of our most famous factories).

The industry here has sustained for longer than other industries in the UK, but over the last 20 years we have seen a sharp decline, with factories closing all the time. In many ways parts of the city look at best unloved, and in some places war torn. Is the experience similar in Windsor, and how does that effect people’s daily lives? The progressive emptying out, and creeping dereliction here has seeped into the minds of a lot of creative people, and our fragmented city has become source material for many of us. Is it the same for you at Broken City Lab?

JL: Glad you got to see “Requiem for Detroit,” I’m looking forward to seeing it myself. It’s interesting, the release of that program was at nearly the same moment as the local media in Detroit are trying to rally the community to tell their stories, which is encouraging. The feeling that I get from Detroit is hope, at least for the moment.

In terms of Windsor and Detroit, it’s a much different situation on either side of the border. Detroit is at least 10 or 15 years ahead of Windsor, in terms of economic downturn and the social implications thereof. Windsor is suffering from the collapsing auto industry; we’ve lost a lot of jobs, we have the highest unemployment rate in Canada, and the city really seems to be struggling to figure out what to do next. Detroit already seems far past this point; the population started to drain a while ago, there haven’t been a lot of good jobs for quite some time, and yet because of that, there are some really interesting things happening there that are probably impossible in virtually any other city. There are definitely some neighbourhoods that have been hit a lot worse than others, but those aren’t entirely due to the auto industry problems — we also have some very significant border and land-use issues here. I suppose the things that I’ve noticed changing the most are the considerably higher turnover of businesses and a lot of really talented people are leaving to find jobs somewhere else, and really a lot of those problems lead to Windsor’s most notorious problems, low self-esteem and inescapable apathy.

You’re completely right though, it’s those very things that make Windsor such an interesting place to work in, and use as source material, as a canvas, as a studio. The more that we’ve done, the more we’ve become interested in understanding what makes a place, what makes up the collection of neighbourhoods that we call a city, how does a seemingly linear history actually unfold through creative examination, and what can be done to disrupt all of those things?

AF: It really does sound quite similar to the situation here in Stoke-on-Trent, our industry lasted around 10 years longer than many others, but in the end – it is just putting off the inevitable. I like the idea of our practices as artists here involving ‘disruptions’ but also celebrations in some way. That is what I really like about your Sites of Apology/Sites of Hope project. There is a balance of good and bad in all places – I would love to see what people here would make of it. What sort of public reaction have you had to the project? In Stoke, part of the problem we have as creative practitioners working in and with the city is whne trying to work wityh and alongside councils and other public sector structures. There seems to be a real misunderstanding about what creative people do, and the lack of ‘collectivity’ in the creative industries here I feel adds to the need for people to move on and out. Is this similar for you, or different? How do you see it developing?

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Investigation: Blurb V Creative Central, sees Anna Francis putting some questions to Mark Brereton. Mark describes himself as a creative instigator, fusing fine art, design and education, working for social interaction. Mark started online networking site Blurb, the online resource and network for Staffordshire based artists and creatives. Mark is also employed by Stoke-on-Trent council to oversee the running of Creative Central; which is described as a central point for North Staffordshire’s Creative Community. Anna is interested in discussing the differences between the two formats, and how Mark finds working on the artist led and council run projects.

AF: You are in a very interesting position Mark. I know you moved back to Stoke-on-Trent over a year ago now, and felt that there was a real need to see the artists and other creative people in the city linking up – as a result you set up Blurb – a social networking site for creativity in the city. What did you hope to achieve through doing this, and has it fulfilled your hopes?

MF: Initially blurb started as a face-to-face monthly meet up. Its aim was to be a supportive peer-to-peer creative group, a sharing of information point, a professional critique session and social networking evening. A question to myself i asked was – What would i find useful in the city as a creative practioner? At the time i felt that the creative individuals and freelancers within the city would benefit from some sort of support, and a good way of doing this was to support one another.

The evening moved very quickly to an online format to be able to open it up to a larger body of people. In doing this I hoped that it would forge stronger links between different disciplines and help to create opportunities, instead of waiting for opportunities to come to the city. I would say it has fulfilled 50% of my hopes. It has helped to raise the
awareness of the amount of quality and creative professionals within the city. I would also say it offers better possibility for cross communication within the creative sector and opened up more of a transparent information sharing process. The other 50% of my hopes are still awaiting to develop over the next 12 months.

AF: Perhaps due to the success, and take up by artists in the city, you were then employed by the council to run their new ‘Creative Central’ website, which launched some time last year, which, as far as I can tell, was designed to fufill a very similar function to Blurb. What have the issues been for you, in terms of the two approaches; artist led and council led?

MB: The official live launch of Creative Central was September 2009. I’d been working on blurb for 9 months before this, unknowingly that CC had been planned for sometime. I interviewed for the position, and yes, perhaps blurb did put me in good footing to gaining this position. Although, it wasn’t an easy decision for me. Local councils tend to get a bad press when it comes to things like this. So many projects like this get dropped due to funding running out and poor audience interaction or consultation.

I decided to take this position as I thought it would be an interesting role and one that was looking to benefit the creative development within the city. There has been only one real difference with my approach to CC over blurb. That has been the way I talk about things or document them. Blurb has always been me speaking from a personal but professional viewpoint. With CC I have tried to take a more neutral position. The more I work on this I’ve realised that you shouldn’t do what you think people want, you should do what is best for the situation and what you were hired to do. It’s difficult not to get drawn into this trap, I’ve seen it happen on other projects when someone isn’t really giving their full concentration because they are doing work for what they think other people want, not what the artist is best at. If I can offer any advice to other artists working with councils, I’d just say to be you, do what you do best and don’t forget that you are an added value, and you can offer a very important viewpoint to what is happening creatively on the ground.

AF: Do you see them as performing a similar function, and what are the differences between them?

MB: On the surface they do seem to offer very similar functions. They both offer a certain amount of interaction, opportunity, events and activities. Scratch a little deeper and they do operate differently. I describe the two as – blurb the artists studio, somewhere for artists to experiment, hold conversation and offer group help. Creative Central is more like the end product or gallery, somewhere to showcase your work, advertise what you do and connect with buyers and commissioners looking for artists/creatives. Both are set up as user generated sites and so you can upload your own content to both. I find this of great interest because each one can develop and evolve by how and what the users want to get out of them.

AF: How have you found the transition, from autonomous artist, to council employed cultural developer? Has that had any impact on your relationships with other practitioners in the city, and with other professionals?

MB: Well, as I am only on a freelance contract I don’t feel like I’m employed by the council and it doesn’t really feel different to any other freelance job that I’m doing. The cultural developer title does make me smile. That is not my title by the way, but it does make me think how other people view the role. To be honest, to date, I have been allowed total creative freedom and so there as not been such a big difference in the transition from self-employed artist to self-employed artist with a part-time contract working for a council project. One issue that does interest me is on the subject of ‘official’. It’s got me thinking more about what is official and who says that one thing is more official than another. I think in today’s climate official doesn’t necessarily mean better or quality. You only have to look at some of the citizen journalist blogs to see that some of the news and content coming from these unofficial sites are better quality and content than mainstream media.

I think the role has given me quicker opportunities to network and meet different people within the city that I probably wouldn’t have met before. I’d like to think that my close working relationships and friends haven’t changed much with this new position, but I’m sure there are others that position themselves closer because they see it beneficial to them or their work. I’m also aware there will be others that see the council as a Them and Us scenario. And perhaps see my decision in taking this role as taking a fast buck and leaving blurb behind. This is far from the truth and if anything I’d honestly say that I took this position to help benefit other professionals in the city and to open more of a debate around the issue of professional practice and council projects.

AF: Has working within the structures of the council provided you with opportunities and insights that you would not have had otherwise?

MB: I haven’t heavily been involved in structures within the council, as of yet I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing. If I’m brutally honest and if any insight it has given me is, I do think that there are too many people that are not fully committed to their roles or not rofessionally adequate or experienced to do their jobs. This is a large failing and one reason why councils bring in highly expensive consultants to advise on subjects that they know nothing about. Incompetent and a waste of money are my feelings.

AF: What are the difficulties which come from being paid bydevelopers/councils whilst wishing to remain critical, theoretically speaking?

MB: Open debate and transparent working methods is something I champion very strongly. By making mistakes we can learn how to move on and progress onto something better and hopefully on the right track. Councils don’t like to hear about the mistakes they have made, but I feel it is important to discuss all parts to benefit the whole. Sometimes I do wonder what would happen if I said or wrote something that my managers or their managers don’t agree with. This hasn’t happened yet but I do think it is important to have open and honest critical debate, positive and negative.

If I started writing about something negative would this have an impact on my position? Would I be told not to write on such subjects? Or would I be left freely to engage with critical issues and causes that involve artists practice? These are just some of the questions that I ask myself. I’d like to think that all subjects could be discussed and raised. It shouldn’t matter who pays you, the bad and the good are all beneficial to projects such as this.

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Anna Francis will be exchanging with curator and arts project manager Monika Vykoukal. Monika works currently as Curatorial Research Associate within the Centre for Art, Design, Research and Experimentation [CADRE] at the University of Wolverhampton. She has previously worked freelance in Vienna, Austria, where she is from, and more recently as curator at Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Scotland. Apart from socially engaged art practices in the public realm, she has a long-term interest in graffiti writing. In regard to the problematic of art and culture-led regeneration, Monika is currently particularly concerned with how decisions are made, whose interests are represented, and how the art project is positioned and functions in relation to wider political frameworks. The conversation will develop over the month – so be sure to check back periodically to see how it goes.

AF: You moved to the West Midlands some time last year Monika, to take up your current position as Curatorial Research Associate at CADRE. What exactly were you brought in to do?

MV: I moved to the West Midlands on 4 April and started the job on the 6 April 2009, to be pedantic. I am employed by the Centre for Art, Design, Research and Experimentation (CADRE) in the School of Art & Design at the University of Wolverhampton. In the second year, starting any day now, I will be working in West Bromwich, on a secondment to Longhouse. The project is a partnership of the University with Multistory through the Longhouse scheme and is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The scope of my work, to quote the initial call-out, is “to plan, develop and then realise an innovative, public realm development scheme benefiting artists, institutions and communities in the West Midlands”. The specific focus of the project has developed slowly during my first year on the job, with I would say some significant changes to this framework (of course agreed by the institutions and funders). Practically, all this means “planning and co-ordination of a curatorial programme, as well as a small practical seminar and a public conference”. The seminar took place in mid-November last year, and I am now focused on the programme. The public conference will follow after that.

AF: So is BCCA the result of what you were brought to the West Midlands to do then (just for clarity) or is it the thing that you have developed within the context? I think it’s quite interesting, because I know quite a few arts development people, and public realm workers who move (fairly frequently) from place to place for time limited projects – though your project is relatively long in the scheme of things. How did you find landing in this place, and having to develop something creative here relatively quickly? How difficult has it been, not knowing the area very well, and what sorts of activities have you got involved in, in order to gain an insight into the place? and also – how long is the project likely to be – how far does the funding reach?

MV: As I said in my last email, I have been hired to deliver this project. The project was initiated by staff at the University of Wolverhampton, who then got Longhouse involved. The person who developed the initial idea at the School of Art & Design, approached Arts Council England, who put him in touch with Longhouse. Then he applied for funding, developing the concept parts of which I quoted in my last email to you. This application was successful. A core component of the application was to hire a curatorial research associate, to carry out the project with involvement of staff and students at the University, as well as in collaboration with colleagues at Longhouse. The person who initiated the project, however, left for a new post elsewhere at the end of June last year.

But yes, I am trying to make this a small, and two-year thing, with enough integrity in itself. The project has been shaped by a wide range of developments during the first year on the job, but it has developed from the initial idea in relation to the changing realities in the local context, the people involved, and the resources available.

The one thing I would have had different, if I had been able to shape this from the start, is that I did feel another title would have been better, because as it stands, in my view, the title does not really give an idea of what this is, and it also evokes something potentially slightly corporate, and ‘boring’, rather than attracting people to want to find out more. When I searched for the term on the internet, one of the first things that comes up is actually this “Creative Advantage Fund is a Birmingham-based venture capital fund for the creative industries.” (see http://www.creativeadvantagefund.co.uk/sign_in.asp), so this is the kind of reference there is for this type of title/name and I don’t think it is a particularly fitting association.

To be honest, I don’t really see myself as moving from place to place for short term projects, and I would not call myself an arts development or public realm worker. I actually felt that two years was quite short, based on my previous experience in comparable work in my last job, where I was for over five years, and based on what I considered good work in this area.

I did apply for it, despite the short time-line, because of the institutional partnership and the long history of Longhouse in the region. The intent was that the local knowledge and longer strategic direction would be provided by the partner organisations, and that they had considered how my contribution would fit within that larger scheme. Again, I did have many guest curators and artists developing their own projects in my last job. We invited those people, because their interests and backgrounds contributed to the longer term direction we wanted to work in as an organisation.

I also applied for the project, because I was keen to experience a new environment and to move away from working based on an art space. I was interested in and worked on projects outside art galleries, in spaces from retail locations to bars to outside, in the streets, for a long time, and I’ve also been interested in and working on/with various magazines for a while. So, it seemed that this opportunity would allow me to focus on and develop this.

Also, you must know about this from Airspace, and from the many commissions large and small you do, I was attracted to being able to concentrate on one substantial project, rather than having to deliver such a wide range of small ones over the year. In my last job, we did about 12 exhibitions per year, as well as one-off events of all kinds, so the amount of research and thought to be given to any one, was really limited. Not to mention resources…

Lastly, I really wanted to work with the person who hired me, and would almost certainly not have applied if it weren’t for him. I thought his perspective would really challenge me, because my impression was that he was much more optimistic about the potential for art to have a positive impact on urban development, whereas I had begun to suspect that the regeneration context did not usually allow for that. So, I thought that as a youngish sceptic (not cynic) I could learn from an old(er) optimist to put it simply. Now, having taken on the direction of the project, I feel more that it is better to be quite cautious and open and to learn more about developments in the specific. Hence, the commission part of the project, that is about to start, has become an ‘investigation’.

When I started, I got some documents from Multistory. At the time they were talking about potential work in three locations: Wolverhampton, Walsall and West Bromwich. There were a lot of changes in the first year, I have all of them documented, but it would be a massive report, so just briefly: It’s not easy to start quickly in a new place, but it’s also quite exciting. In terms of the research, the other people involved did give me some ideas and contacts and research material, and I just tried to meet as many people, and attend as many relevant events, and do as much background research – in libraries, on the internet – as possible. I also walked around the towns quite a lot. The tricky part is to kind of find a balance of action and research, and to admit that this is not going to approach some imaginary comprehensiveness. You need to act at some point! I think seeing the people who get involved and their interests as key, and to consider the whole project as a process-based mutual learning experience gives a good ground for that balance of action and reflection to happen.

Usually I like to work in collaboration with others and make decisions together. I also like to get an overview of the situation I am working in, the context, by mapping things out, i.e. in this case the various bodies that together shape regeneration in the area. I tend to pick up idiosyncratic things and coincidences. However, trying to map out the regeneration-related bodies and their relationships and who decides what and timelines of various schemes just turned out to be too complicated (or maybe it was unclear beyond me not getting it). So this is actually going to be partly the starting point for the commissions now. I am kind of interested in the areas that “frame” and impact on the art commissions, as you can see. I went to at least as many planning and regeneration related events for the project, I think, as to art events.

I think I will stop there for now, if that’s ok.

The funding for the project is limited to two-years, as is my contract. Given the voluntary redundancies and changing focus of the University, as well as the potential impact of the ongoing national plans for cuts in education as well as public services, which will and indeed are impacting on our funder and on the partner organisation as far as I know, I think it is unlikely that the project will continue. At the same time, I also believe, that if enough people want this to continue in some form, it will. With money or outwith the current funding and institutional framework. And if it continued, we (they?) would hopefully get us a sweeter title!

AF: I know from attending the BCCA seminar that a lot of practitoners were brought in to discuss practice, and methodologies of approach for public realm working. What benefit do you see there being in holding a seminar like that? and how is it going to feed in to the wider programme. Also, now that the ‘action’ side of things is starting – what is that going to be? I know you have taken up residence in the market in West Brom (do you have a picture?) what do you think that will achieve, and what would you like to see happening in that space?

MV: Having a seminar at the start of the project was part of the plan I was given. However, I do think it was a good idea to start this way, and I did organise it in a way I thought would work well.

Before I get into that I want to actually mention how the work on the project is done, because when I write ‘I did organise’ there was obviously an internal decision-making process with various people (Chloe at Multistory and her colleagues, Andy Hewitt and Dew Harrison at the University, and the project advisory board who met twice with us).

To get back to the seminar, this was to develop the potential focus of the project, share and learn from experiences, and to gather a group of people who might be interested in getting involved in the project for the duration, and thus should also be able to shape that. We did an open call, as suggested by the advisory board in their first meeting. I was a bit worried about that, because it is hard to manage an open call and to have a clear and open and reasoned selection process. I think open calls can create the illusion of something like an equal opportunity, but not quite deliver that. People spend time and effort to apply, and then they don’t even get an individual, open reply, just something about there being too many applicants. One of the advantages of course is that people you might never have heard about introduce themselves in applying. A bit of all of that happened with that call out.

The ambition was then to have the seminar very discussion-based and in a thematic progression from the wider issues around regeneration, to the more specific about the art work, but still focused on the relationship of the art practices to and in the wider social and political developments large and small that make up the regeneration, rather than as an isolated specialism, or with the urban development just becoming raw material for the ‘content’ of artistic work. The day before the seminar we had a launch event, that was a public discussion. Basically, it was really important to me to be open and visible from the start, but also to consider what people outwith the arts might find relevant about this and what working people could or could not attend. Having a free, open evening talk about regeneration by an engaging writer and speaker [Anna Minton, who wrote 'Ground Control'] who had done some solid research and could communicate that well… that just seemed like a good way to do that. Of course, a lot of people who attended that, judging from their contributions, also had professional interests in regeneration or at least planning or architecture, but I think that’s good.

On the day of the seminar itself, things worked more or less well. For what follows, I would like to state in advance, that I tend to be a bit critical and focus on the things that did not work that well. I’d never organized such an extensive event of this kind before in that fashion, and there was a real problem with time-keeping. A lot of the practical, organisational issues around the event had started to take over my time in preparing the seminar, and I had actually never gotten the space to properly focus on ‘just the content’. I still don’t know how I could have done this better, because practically everyone spoke much longer than they’d been asked to. Added to that, I’m not into policing people or exerting pressure, I think, and am more of the ‘whatever happens happens’ type, and that the group will collectively create a certain dynamic. I don’t think any of the talks were boring either, there was just a lot to take in.

I also think that the ambition behind it might have been a little in conflict with the make-up of the group and structure of the day. I feel because people came to the seminar from different places and backgrounds, a one-day seminar was not really enough time to make them a ‘group’ in terms of developing a shared outlook or interest. I think the topic would have to have focused more and people have been invited in a more specific way for their contributions and interests. But then there would have had to be more of a specific agenda already. And I wanted to see how far the concerns that I identified for myself and the questions I have and approaches I find interesting are actually shared by other people who may want to get involved. It was great to get all those people together, and I felt they all had a good time and could get something out of talking to each other, both during the seminar, and informally outside it. For me it was a good way to get a sense for how much my impressions and ideas fit with the experience of people who had been working in this area much longer than I have. It was also good to get so many people’s impressions of the locality, obviously. Before the seminar, I had mainly been doing the research I wrote to you about earlier, and done reading, and walking and going to talks, but I had not had the opportunity to discuss in this way.

Some obvious points to make, are that there is always a bit of a pressure to come up with a plan and an outcome very quickly, rather than to take time to just have a considered thoughtful discussion and development. It is very easy to just do things in the forms and structures that are familiar, and also in this case one speech after another, rather than discussion, maybe. I have a lot of questions and concerns right now, about the project and the wider situation, and also my personal circumstances in this, and this can make it hard to be a good chair and “professional” at times, but I think it is important to be aware of those things and acknowledge them.

The discussions at the seminar have actually directly informed the plan forward at this point. The main conclusion from the seminar was really, that actually, what happens under the label regeneration, and what interests are enacted, and e.g. the relationship of all the documents generated and plans and so on, and what actually happens, is not at all self-evident and needs careful examination. Another issue that came across strongly are how arts projects are often ‘used’ (by authorities, commissioners, funding bodies…) to substitute for public involvement in actual decision-making (there are also actual studies that come to that conclusion), to be almost an advert for the regeneration scheme, making it look good, or to supplement consultation exercises or stand in for them. And, the last point I found central, was how professionalism can detach people from the complexity of the actual situation and from developing their own position and judgement in relation to events they are implicated in. As a result planners do the planning part, artists do their practice, one part of the council works with the global corporation, another works to support local grassroots initiatives and so on. And how they feel about it all as people is not relevant.

So, out of this comes the market stall. But like I said before, this was something I had been thinking of earlier: I’d started to think about it a few months after I started the job. I had moved to Wolverhampton, rather than e.g. Birmingham, which is in commuting distance, because I had thought the project was taking place there, and felt it was important to get first-hand experience of daily life in the locality. As it turned out, the location, as was soon clear would be West Bromwich, which is a different town. So, here I was, in my office in the School for Art & Design, mostly working away at the computer on my own. I became very keen to get a better feel for the place, and to have more people and activity around me, and therefore started to think about a shop. This did not come about though, because I kept rethinking and looking at different angles, and just being busy with the research.

But, when I developed the plan for the second year, I considered what I wanted to do and thought I could do well, and would find good as an experiment of sorts, to see how it works. I basically looked at the issues and key points at the seminar, in so far as they resonated with my perceptions, at the project resources, and my capacities, in carrying out and supporting the work. The main resource, actually, is my own full-time labour. I therefore asked myself how I can use this best towards addressing the issues raised above (i.e. agendas and interests behind developments, and so on)? And the next piece of the idea was actually that the image of Lucy from the Peanut’s cartoon at her stall came to my mind.

I was also quite exhausted, this was right after the seminar, and I was visiting some good friends for a few days, to think about the project from a bit of a distance. So, I also thought, how can I sustain this for another year? And what I felt I needed was more contact, so I thought, the stall can be a base to invite people to come and do things. And from that I considered that those activities would be more focused on the ideas behind the project, and, repeating myself yet again (sorry) the seminar “findings”. So I made a general outline. But basically, my ideas are a mixture of rigorous and fluffy, and ‘I really want to work with this person, because that’s so brilliant,’ and then checking back and thinking, of how this will affect the overall project direction, and public presence of it, and potential consequences as far as I can see, of course. Is this really going to work as part of an attempt at co-production, and is this important, is this going to be a considered reflection, both in how it is done, and what it is about, and all that, or might it just become an advert for the shiny new future of the town, as promised by succeeding waves of regeneration plans? Or is it about making the dirty edges of the place looking all cool, in a grimy, keeping-it-real sort of way? Those are just examples of the kinds of questions that go round my head. And I think it is important to be clear about your own motivations, and have that in the project, rather than to just focus on other people’s interests and see yourself only as ‘doing your job’ in a neutral fashion, or, what’s worse in my view, as ‘doing good for/to those people out there’.

I then wrote an invite to take part, trying to given an idea of the parameters of the plan forward, and sent it to the seminar participants, to get an idea of who wanted to get involved further and how. The basic plan now is to have this stall in the indoor market in West Bromwich. How I got the space is a whole different story. I am sending you some photos, we are currently working on the set-up, i.e. me and Jens Strandberg, who is an artist based in Glasgow, is doing the graphic design ( ), and Rich, who used to work at Multistory, and Keith, who works there, are working on the actual stall’s look together and coordinated with Jens. Rich brought those amazing 70s copies of the Blackcountryman to the office yesterday. It was a bit scary, because they used a very similar look and colours to what Jens had come up with who has never seen them. Anyway, this sounds like I am getting carried away on some decorating project, which I am sure I am not. But it is important to honor the trust of the market in giving us the space, and also to show that we care about doing this well, by making it look right. It’s going to be quite flexible and practical, and low-key and basically simple and functional, but mindful. At least that’s the aim. I will be at the stall, and have people contribute to the “investigation” into urban development in the centre of West Bromwich, from April to end of September. That’s the basic plan.

I have not gotten to answering what I think that will achieve and what I want to see happen yet. So, I will answer that quickly for now, so I can actually get back to the doing: basically, I would like to get a project that is a collaborative investigation, and looks at arts and culture as interconnected with all those other facets of urban development, or basically our lives, as social, here and now. I’d just like to think through and articulate, and make visible certain questions around that, to learn new things, and to challenge assumptions, especially around questions of value, and equality, and power. I am not really in agreement with the idea that this is ‘all common sense” or “obvious.” In a way, the more you try to really look at what seems to be happening, the more complicated things actually are.

Those questions are not particularly shiny and new, but this does not mean they’re not relevant anymore. Just because claims are often so much repeated and unchallenged, and language is used without any meaning, or rather without the ostensible meaning (for instance a few years ago local councils across Scotland, as part of cultural policy, started something cultural entitlements, and then there was a footnote that said ‘entitlement’ did not imply any legal right to anything; that’s that sort of new twist to words, I mean). There’s a lot of talk about how the recession in the last two years (with frequent proclamations in the media of it having ended or never been), has changed things irrevocably, but I think there need to be people doing the questioning, for this to be true to any extent, including even in small art projects like this one. More specifically, with the regeneration right now, and with all kinds of public services and existing structures, there’s a lot of schemes that have been halted, or cut, and questions of how things will go on, both in the immediate and in the longer term, I guess. And there is a need to just keep asking and looking and restating things, as well as needs for doing, maybe. And I mean asking based on specifics as much as possible. I don’t think this should be a policy document analysis (not even locally). I think paper trails can be a distraction from looking at the ground beneath your feet, and the street around.

In terms of what I want, I am quite nervous right now. I usually like to do pesky detail in the background, and have someone loud, and charming do the social interactions. But I’ve got no-one to be a sidekick to here… so that’s quite scary. I’m not always particularly witty or charming or easy with my answers. I’m not a natural sales-person, all told. And that’s a bit bad for a market stall (and sometimes I also think for the kind of ‘creative,’ positive project that is demanded in art a lot right now, it seems). So, at least this is an adventure.

I want this to be lively, and to learn more, in a specific situation, about what makes up those developments, what interests shape them, what consultation does and does not allow for in terms of decision-making by non-experts from the area affected by the development, and of course about what kind of art practice can come about in relation. I want this to be a small, but open project, and to have some integrity. It would be great, if the stall attracted passersby, and people with a keen interest in those interested came forward to share and make visible things, and discuss with each other. But at the same time, I am quite conscious of the outsider role, and that there is a case not to take over what people are doing anyway for themselves and frame it as art, and basically profit from them even if in a “merely symbolic” way. Also, with activities that are somewhat of a campaigning or activist nature, and basically political, making demands in that way, framing them as art, might not be the best move to have them recognized in any way, and indeed doing an art work is not the same as organising a campaign. I’m good at stating the obvious, I guess…

Ideally, I would get into a position to connect people with similar interests, or to get information from one person to another, to basically become that info-hub. But that’s one kind of ambition. I am curious to see what happens, working in this space, but not with a pre-existing group of “local” people, and what may or may not be possible when open to responses and suggestions, based on interest. I also wonder if the monthly pamphlet, which we are going to make, is something that can be a good read for people in the area. I am a big fan of community media, and think it’s a shame there is not actually a local newsletter made by amateurs right now (council and third sector run publications excluded here), as far as I now. This is obviously also not going to be that, but it is inspired by that sort of effort. Maybe all this kind of work can do, is make the inherent contradictions and tensions more visible?

I think the other kind of ambition, and the other side of all this, although it might not be good to separate this so much in my mind, is very much the art-related part. That’s something I am asking myself, and have been for a long time, what it means to do this kind of work as art, and also what kind of framework I would want, or wider culture, really. I often wonder if what I think is right and how it seems my professional field operates, based on my concrete working experience, is at all compatible. I also have lots of literature on that, if anyone is interested… In a wider sense, it is important to consider the institutions supporting the project and their agendas, including the funders, and as often said before, the role the ambitions behind this project, if not the entire project in and of itself, plays in actualizing the role of culture in regeneration in a specific way. And to look into what this might be, and mean for conceptions of culture. I’ve also got some reading material on that. Actually many of the seminar participants were interested and had done some significant work on those kinds of questions (you can find links to their articles here on the blog: http://www.blackcountrycreativeadvantage.org/?p=109). Those are also questions to ask around the ambitions behind and now realities of  The Public (the new art centre in West Bromwich, that was built as the key project of regeneration and has been somewhat controversial, to say the least). I could go on, and I’ll probably find this all a bit simplistic when (if) I check it again, but I wanted to get back to you relatively quickly, and I need to get back to the work.

AF: A very thorough answer Monika, thank you. I like the idea of the market stall – our markets are dying out, but have always been really vibrant spaces. In the context of the Tesco development it seems like a really good grass roots location for the project. You mention that you are usually not that comfortable with the ’social interaction’ side of things, but that with this context you will have to be – the interesting thing here is in the role of ‘arts project manager’ – those in that role are probably more usually in the background, overseeing things in some ways. I think it is quite a different and unique approach to situate the project desk within the public space, and I like the fact that in this way the entire process becomes a work of art. Personally speaking, do you find this to be an exciting development, and have you worked in this way before?

*****

TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Anna Francis will be talking with Ania Bas, collaborative artist and developer of art projects. The conversation will develop over the month – so be sure to check back periodically to see how it goes.

THE CONVERSATION

AF: Your work really involves people and places, so I was wondering what your experience might be in terms of creating dialogues with the public, and how you might go about instigating that and in particular how location might have an impact on how well those go – and also if in your experience places have people types in anyway, if you see what I mean…

AB: yes, I predominantly work within ‘real places’ and with ‘everyday people’. I like exposing art and art processes to environments where art is vulnerable.

I enjoy working in the markets a lot  – ideal space for exchange and communication (this is something that I like seeing happening a bit more between people). Markets are amazing spaces within towns, one of the very few spaces in my opinion that are still chain shops-free, specialised and relying on returning customers as well as good relationships between people.
I like becoming a sales person, selling something people would normally not consider buying i.e. language (Special Offer project) Or providing free services that people would never consider getting from a stranger i.e. pat on the back or a shoulder to cry on. (Performance Market, Plymouth).

Both projects were prepared for market environments and came out as a result of the research in these spaces, so i wasn’t parachuting my ideas on the space, i worked with the space, or at least i hoped i did.
Markets are great because people who go there are in the ’shopping mood’ and they are more approachable, they are already searching for something, they are easier to stop and give few minutes of their time to something weird, new, different. I definitely take advantage of it.

I took once Special Offer project to the restaurant – it was a disaster, no one wanted to buy or sell language, people wanted to buy food. The only people who bought languages where arty people, who knew about the project and came to specially see it. This toughed me a lot. There is this push to sustain your practise, to i.e. ‘tour’ your work but I have learnt that I rely too much on the context and it is not suitable to uproot the work from the location and simply take it places.

Another [of the] spaces I am going to work with next is cafes. I have already had an extensive experience of serving tea and home made cake as part of one of my previous projects. But I do not think I have exhausted the subject yet. So cafes are next! And I think it links again to markets as cafes are also spaces where exchange and communication takes place.

I was wondering if you have an experience of ‘touring’, taking work developed in one location to another and what experiences were like. I am not sure if sustainability within arts practice is something you wish to discuss as part of this conversation, but I think it is part of the city landscape too.

AF: I think it is an interesting point to make that a work made in one place cannot necessarily be transplanted and recreated in another context. It is not always appropriate, and cannot always work. I find, like you, that an approach which responds to a particular site can work very well and a lot of what I do comes from a direct research activity on the given site. It would not be appropriate to transplant that work to a new place or situation. (Funny really as this point is something being discussed in the conversation with Rich White, and is in line with his approach too.) I have on occasion made work which is designed to be translated to another place – the art building exchange between AirSpace Gallery Stoke-on-Trent and Window 204 Bristol involved explorations of sites which were then swapped over and exhibited in the other place – but that was always the intention. So not exactly what you are asking about. The project ‘There is Beauty in the City’ started in one place, and was a personal thing – I would walk around and place my little magnet signs wherever something of interest or beauty could be found. This project has grown over the years into a participatory project – people from all over the world have requested the magnet, and placed it in a spot in their city. This then is a project which allows the specific location to change – it can really be transplanted anywhere – it allows the participant to reframe and look at a site differently. I like the diplomacy of it – and feel it is forming some kind of consensus on the beauty to be found in cities.

I like the idea of bringing cake and tea into practice – and I try to involve cake in life as much a spossible – but seriously, it offers a point of exchange, which is also, I believe, important when making dialogical works. I think cafes could be  great locations to explore – particularly as we lose more and more of our greasy spoons to swanky coffee shops charging £2.20 for a coffee. It is another example of the homogenisation of the high street you mentioned before.

When you mention sustainability Ania, what is it in particular you are thinking of? You have asked this for a reason, so, is it something that you are concerned with at the moment?

AB: I am aware of your ‘There is Beauty in the City’ project. And I think there is a bit of connection between it and the project I worked on in Five Ways in Birmingham a while ago. But Framedalism was framing places of potential or real vandalism of places and people. Five ways was a very depressing place by night and quite a lively spot by day despite majority of shops being closed down.

I placed frames around this site and they all were taken away/stolen/smashed/removed within 24 hours. It was a moment when i discovered for myself that i do not mind the work having so short life. I actually from this moment onwards started creating more work that has very short best before date. I started enjoying making ephemeral pieces that survive only thanks to memory (and documentation!).

So yes, cafes next – can’t imagine anything having shorter best before date as hot cup of coffee and a piece of cake – best enjoyed fresh, best enjoyed now. And as you said it is a brilliant starting point for a dialogue. There is something very comforting in hot drinks and sweet foods. I am still exploring the ways I am going to engage within this context and it looks like i will pursue the idea to become an art waitress in residence in a cafe that does not have this sort of service. And oh yes, i aim for a cafe that does not charge 2,20 for a coffee.

I have asked you about sustainability as it’s been a key word for a while now and I am observing how it is affecting arts projects, ways of disseminating the work. I think that i.e. pushing site-specific/context-specific/live work to go on ‘tour’ is part of this ’sustainable thinking’ as well as looking into introducing site/context/live work to a commercial market, looking for ways to sell it, enter high street enviornment as another product for sale rather then something that makes you think/explore/challenge/reflect on etc.

Sustainability is a big question for cities too, and homogenisation of the city scape is definitely not helping to achieve it.

AF: So in a way, you are talking about art as a commodity, like any other? It is interesting – what will separate you as an art waitress from any other waitress. This is something I sometimes wonder within my own work – If my practice takes the form of doing a job (city tour guide) what is the difference between me and a tour guide – I am not sure of the answer, but I think it is something to do with intention.

*****

TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.