All is going smoothly but time is running out for preparatory elements for the residency. I know I will feel like a small child at Christmas time when my new digital recorder arrives, but for now I have been chasing the last couple of details from the early funders.
The tourism board are debating whether or not a different (and partly european funded) project already taking place with an interpretative element, is too close to what I will be doing with the audio guide idea. I tried to explain that this is not a cultural sciences project, but visual art which is utilising those techniques…we’ll see whether this is different enough! They should get back to me any day now. Still waiting on Hope Scott Trust as well, again, should be a reply any day. Scottish Arts Council by the end of the month. I hate the waiting and not knowing!
On more cheery notes, I have negotiated to have a whole day of activities with the primary school. But it asks difficult questions for me as I do not want to be seen as an artist that does “kiddy-workshops” or tries to cure social ills with finger painting! But I have undergone a play for the dead, thus now I want to do a play for the youth, the future decision-makers of Eigg. I want them to almost take it on as their own, and have it grow so that perhaps it becomes a new tradition. Tradition-making has long been an interest of mine. So it means working with the kids (still waiting for CRB form from the School so time is short there too!). I will perform a puppet show to illustrate what I would like them to do, make costumes and then document tableaux-style scenes. Really looking forward to this bit.
The weather up here is Scotland is so unseasonably glorious that, fingers crossed, it will remain throughout the summer and I can go out walking on Eigg every day that I am there. Must create a strong visible presence or I could risk residents not knowing I was ever there! a few flyers is NEVER enough to have any kind of real involvement or have a group take something on as there own. Yet again I am reliant on many elements of contribution from people I work with, both with people coming forward for interviews, and for them coming to see work installed afterwards.
I have created some slick logos to go with each stage of the project and will attach them to public information letters which will hit the island regularly throughout the project. They are artworks in themselves and fully describe the processes I want to undertake.
One month to go…
