European Region of Culture Campaign

I’ve just completed the second leg of the project to establish European Regions of Culture. After Poland I contacted the Higher Academy of Happiness and they thought it was a good time to get involved. They had specific concerns about my well-being – something to do with the Copernican Revolution and whether administrators or artists are at the centre of the cultural universe. But also because a lot of wishes formed at the event on the roof of the gallery during the meteor shower in Torun seemed to come back to the concept of well-being.

There’s been some recent research comparing European countries where the Finns scored the best on the absence of negative feelings. The project was based in Lapua in the old cartridge factory which has become a cultural centre for the community. There was an explosion where 40 people died. 35 of them were women. 60 children lost their mothers.

The given theme for this residency was cultural entrepreneurship. As a mover and shaker I took the Happiness Project there to see if it was possible to make happiness a Unique Selling Point. I inflated 1,200 balloons in the chapel. I had a Happiness Posse. Mothers entered their babies into a competition, with older people – including 5 who survived the explosion.

One contestant with a lot of scars was in the loading bay when the explosion happened. She had been given a watch that she put in a pocket over her heart that day. A bullet struck the watch and time stood still.

Voting is taking place this week.

I still have to edit the interviews. I want a piece of sound art that stands up as evidence-based research using art as inquiry and presentational knowing.

The interesting thing about Copernicus is that he was just a man with a tidy mind, and there was something about the way things had been done before that just didn't add up. But he was scared to death of causing a fuss and the repercussions of any challenge to the status quo. So when we talk about the Copernican Revolution we need to know that Copernicus wasn't a revolutionary. The implications of his work were revolutionary. The centre wasn't the centre any more. The top dog position and the pecking order changed.

In some ways this is interesting to apply to this campaign for European Regions of Culture. Rural areas can't even enter the competition for Capitals of Culture. So the question is how come the urban centres have the monopoly on culture, and how do we get a level playing field?

It was interesting to do the translations from English to Polish about making wishes in the middle of a meteor shower. They translate 'making wishes come true' to something that is about wishing well. The idea is that you have to be careful what you wish for, and be really clear that the wish you make is what you really want.

Oh dear, now my mind has deteriorated into thinking about the Spice Girls.

My research for this project aims to develop new insight on well-being here on earth by looking out to the Universe. In rural areas we can see the stars and the heavens more clearly than in the cities. When we look at the night skies it inspires a feeling of wonder and awe. We have our own standpoints and perceptions, but we share the same skies, and for a moment we are part of a bigger picture. When we see a shooting star what do we wish for? The project links art and science, technology and imagination, to develop a better understanding of what we mean by culture, and find out what can be learnt for the future.

I am incommunicado. I left my mobile phone in the hotel room in Poland. When you phone the number a man says Poland…this is Poland. I'll phone him soon and say Cornwall…this is Cornwall. And see where we go from there.

Oh no – the residency slipped by without a minute to think never mind blog. I returned via Warsaw to Cornwall in the rain late last night after a late night networking the night before. I think too much culture may not be good for me.

I will have to do a retrospective blog. This could be useful as action research has these cycles of action and reflection, and – in a spirit of inquiry – I really do need to reflect carefully on what happened last week.

I got myself in a mess with the politics. Research has this problem, science has this problem, so why did the problem of politics in art come as such a surprise? I remember years ago going to a lecture on the social responsibility of science, where they were confronting this idea of academic freedom and the notion of an objective value-free science. Reality isn't like that. You need the funders money to pay your bills and they have their own agendas.

I think I'd just got into the idea of contemporary art having permission to be controversial, and generating critical dialogue being a good thing. Maybe not. Not when someone's paying me.

Anyway the beyond the pale soundwork was at least heard at the event I did on the roof of the Contemporary Art Gallery before anyone realised there was a problem. It was a new international anthem, served with Copernicus vodka shots and a pinch of stardust. I managed to find some local astronomers in the end who set up their telescopes. I gave out star charts and talked about philosophy. My translator helped me sort out the songs that the choir in regional costume sang that night. Songs about wishes and stars. Of course they may have been singing protest songs, but the accordian player smiled and looked great.

I had selected the best night for spotting shooting stars during the meteor shower. The clouds came just as the event started – the only cloudy night that week. I think I saw one though and I made a wish.

There was a flip chart for the movers and shakers to firm up their wishes for regional culture. But I couldn't put that in the gallery exhibition either because it might look like something left over from a conference that had been put in the wrong place, and not like art at all.

There was no blackout space in the gallery and they didn't have the equipment for my installation. So I cobbled together a film in my hotel room on the Thursday night for the next morning when many people in suits arrived for a day of watching powerpoint presentations on culture. My work was where they had coffee.

When I arrived yesterday it looked like the 254 email messages that had gone backwards and forwards to sort out the residency had been wasted. It's tricky to know whether it's a language problem or a question of different cultures. There are major problems with my wish list.

However I finally got out to the Observatory, through the security gates and into the land of universal wonder. The Director was called out of the International conference of the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry(VBLI) Network Technical Group to see me. I felt like a Very Important Person (VIP). I imagine it's the kind of meeting where it's good to take a break.

The Father of Astronomy – who is 82 and very dapper – then came out of the meeting and showed me the control room. I think he thought I understood everything he told me. But I couldn't get Pink Floyd out of my head when he was telling me about working with NASA on putting a radio telescope on the dark side of the moon. The dark side is a paradise for radio astronomers – the only place you can really get a bit of peace and quiet for a change. I nodded sympathetically.

I'm thinking of inviting him to my star party on the roof of the contemporary art gallery in Torun on Wednesday night. I don't want to be selling coal to Newcastle but I'm not sure the locals realise just how good they are at this astronomy business. Sometimes you can't see for looking and someone from outside can notice things you haven't really thought about before, in that way. Certainly the conversation astronomers might have with an artist will be different to the ones they have with other astronomers.

I'm going back to the Observatory on Monday. We've got a lot to talk about. The meteor shower starts tomorrow.