Help! Does anyone out there have experience of working with guides/intermediaries?
Having lived, breathed and dreamt about my project for the last six months, I am now in the throes of letting go, and it’s proving traumatic.
The installations are in place, and I have tested them on various volunteers, to a positive reaction. But as the exhibition is scheduled to run for 6 months, the plan was to recruit guides who will be the ones who interface with the public – in a sense it is they who will present the work. I recognise that any handover process is fraught.
Perhaps we didn’t allow enough time to train up these guides (two training days over one week), but I did find Day 1 very difficult.
Encouraged by Andrew Bryant (see his comments on my blog of 13/4) to think non-subjectively (to let go of the selfness inherent in the process of becoming a modern subject), I nonetheless find I have strong views on what information I would like the guides to impart to the public (and how they do it). I have realised that I cannot expect from them the same level of knowledge and commitment to the project, and have to try and distil the essence of what I would like them to convey.
It is early days yet, and hopefully by the end of Day 2 of training we will iron out the kinks. But right now I feel that my next project should stand on its own, rather than rely on guides. Maybe an audio guide – without the human factor of re-interpreting coming between artist and audience. Is this an egotistic response?
