Processing

We are just about to enter into the last five days of our crowdfunding campaign to raise money to print a newspaper for Processing Since my last post at the end of April, we’ve reached a fantastic £800 of our overall total of £900.

What has been ever more amazing is that 52 people – a heady mix of friends and strangers – have contributed to the campaign. 52. That’s quite a number and very generous people. Even if we fail to hit £900, something that would be disappointing having come this far, then I consider this alone is an achievement.

The campaign has also given me some rich experience of how crowdfunding works. While I made sure to research what makes a good campaign, using resources such as an article by Emily Speed on a-n, before jumping in, I held onto a degree of pessimism before starting. Without any real social benefit outside of the project, I often feared; who would fund us? As this evaporated, I have picked up numerous valuable lessons ‘on the job’. I hope to share these on this blog after the campaign has finished.

Today I will be working on the design for the newspaper; the firmest indicator of the shift from the intangible coffee shop discussions of the last few months.

It would be extremely rude to continue my recent trend of ending my posts with a link and asking you to consider donating. This time I can say that you can help push us over the edge:

http://www.sponsume.com/project/processing-newspap…

A small but very important post this morning: we’ve broken the 50% barrier on our crowdfunding bid!!

We’re just about to hit the 2 weeks-to-go mark. I’m delighted with the great support we’ve had so far with 31 people contributing. However keeping up this momentum and sourcing new support is a must if we’re going to reach our target.

In non crowdfunding news: designs for the newspaper are well underway. I’m meeting with Kenn Taylor and McCoy Wynne on Saturday to finalise their content for the newspaper.

http://www.sponsume.com/project/processing-newspap…

I had the pleasure of reading the first draft of Kenn Taylor’s text for the exhibition on Sunday. Kenn wrote the piece after accompanying McCoy Wynne (the partnership of Steve McCoy and Stephanie Wynne) on a visit to their next ‘Trig’ point – their 25th Primary Triangulation point. There are 314 in Great Britain. McCoy Wynne intend to visit them all.

Kenn’s text draws on his rich background in journalism and offers an outside perspective into the complexities of the ambitious 5 year project. Speaking to Steve and Stephanie about their ideas at the beginning of the project, they were keen to dispel any associations with it being simply about ‘capturing’ the trig points on camera. For them, the project covers much more:

‘Even though the location of each pillar is well documented, there is still a heightened sense of exploration and anticipation based on the uncertainty of access, weather conditions and the disparity between “the real” and the “abstract” of the map view.’

What Kenn’s text does is make these processes explicit. His prose weaves the act of orienteering with soundbites of McCoy Wynne openly discussing their own thoughts and ideas in transit; fears about the visit are expressed in the face of adverse weather. Kenn’s position as an observer in this process allows him to provide analysis and untangle the different thoughts processes driving the project.

Our crowdfunding campaign has just gone past the half way mark now. We have raised £415 – 46% of our total. A great amount of support. However as we tip into the latter part of our crowdfunding campaign, we obviously need to keep the momentum going.

As ever, any support in helping us realise this goal would be massively appreciated: http://www.sponsume.com/project/processing-newspaper

Hello everyone. Here’s my preamble.

This blog is about ‘Processing’, an exhibition I’m coordinating that will be held at the Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool in June. The exhibition is photography based, but has been built around new cross art form collaborations and work.

These collaborations seek to challenge the working processes of the photographers, but also to create new artistic outcomes and encourage experimentation. I’ll unpick the ideas and concepts behind the exhibition over the next few weeks but here is some context for the collaborations:

Kevin Casey will be exhibiting work from his unseen Chamber series documenting the staff, patients and inner workings of the UK’s decompression chambers, highlighting the various uses of Hyperbaric medicine and its practices. Joni Karanka, artist and co-founder of the Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff, will be producing a text in response to the Chamber series.

Stephen King will be exhibiting work from his project ‘Here To There‘. The project is an on going survey of ‘desire paths’ – a term coined by architectural planners and human geographers to describe footpaths that are gradually worn into the environment between recognised pathways or buildings. Stephen will be collaborating with Linda Pittwood, an exhibition coordinator and arts writer based in Liverpool.

McCoy Wynne will be exhibiting work from Triangulation an on-going five-year project to visit all 314 Primary triangulation points built and measured between 1936 and 1962 by the Ordnance Survey for a project known as the Retriangulation of Great Britain. The project intends to visit all 314 points and, using the pillar as a point of reference, produce 360-degree panoramas of the topographical view. McCoy Wynne will be working with Kenn Taylor, a writer, journalist and project manager based in Liverpool, on documenting the next triangulation point in the series.

The aim of this blog is to create a platform for me to articulate my thoughts and in the run upto the project. Quite self serving, yes, but I think there is a story to tell here. Anyone who wishes to keep tabs or interact with me through the blog are very welcome guests.

The blog also comes just after I have launched a Sponsume crowdfunding bid. The bid is to print 1,000 of a 24 page newspaper. This newspaper will be a key tool to draw out the full extent of these processes and the ideas behind the original bodies of work. It will feature the full commissioned texts by each of writers.

If you’re interest is piqued; the link is below…and if your interest extends to a generous contribution, no matter how small, now that would be utterly amazing. Thank you.

This blog will be all about the process; the remaining 29 days of pushing for the crowdfunding; the final discussions with photographers, writers and The Cornerstone Gallery; the launch of LOOK/13 International Photography Festival in May (the exhibition is part of the Associated Programme); balancing a currently unpaid project with paid work and finally, the opening of the show.

Speak soon.

http://www.sponsume.com/project/processing-newspap…

http://www.processingproject.wordpress.com

http://www.hope.ac.uk/cornerstonegallery/

http://www.lookphotofestival.com