Democratic Window
Yesterday i took the train to Cambridge to take up an invitation to talk about my experiences of being a founder member of Satellite at an Aid & Abet event: Why work together?
It was a really interesting discussion with Annabel Dover member of Market Project, Lisa Wilkens, Aid & Abet Associate Artists and co-founder of Changing Spaces and Caroline Wright & members of ROAM Collective (who are currently showing work at Aid & Abet).
It quickly became apparent that each group works in quite a different way, with different agendas and perhaps importantly with different levels of support and funding. I spoke about how we started as a group and the way it works. Satellite is predominately self funding, although for the Space Exchange project we did receive a fee which covered expenses for the project we devised. Our ongoing lack of funds does get in the way of making plans and developing as a group. We have, a couple of times come close to making funding applications but have pulled back from it – i wonder why that is.
One of the topics was about being in a democratic group and i said that we operate a democratic window, a term i just made up after hearing Lisa talk about her work with Changing Spaces. Satellite members live all over the Eastern region, meeting in one space all together hasn’t happened for a number of years now. So with email as our primary communication tool when ideas are sent around we set dates for responses (the democratic window) if we didn’t set dates nothing would ever be completed. More recently for the Space Exchange project Dominique Rey and I worked together under the banner of Satellite, devising and delivering the project as a collaboration between the two of us.
On the train home I was left wondering about why i do ‘work together’ and what the purpose of Satellite is. It has a very flexible format – easy to change and adapt and perhaps i enjoy that way of working but also I’m wondering about a review. I have also been thinking about the focus a physical space can offer. Perhaps when Dominique reads this post she will reply and write some of her thoughts.
* Roam Collective: Roaming, an exhibition at Aid and Abet includes work by Will Clifford based in his home town of Rendlesham (which perhaps Dominique and I consider we now know having walked the UFO trail in Rendlesham Forest) the images in the show are very intriguing – well worth a look. He has planned a series of talk for October i think – check their website for more details, one of the talks will have a UFO focus… http://roamcollective.com/current-project-roaming/
