'Weakness invites agression"

Was at a Union conference of a variety of trade unions across UK, plus some others from Spain, Ireland and Greece as speakers.

What keeps ringing out to me, and resonates for me in so many ways, is 'weakness invites aggression'. Fucking bullies!

Ok culturally - I encouraged some banners to be put up, defend 4 posters, Suz muna's photos and added some photo cuttings on a few walls plus some poems in the toilets. Bread & Roses... of course. If I could have laid out more, just the images stacked together could have said so much.

Meanwhile I did get agreement from 2 photographers and one exhibition of striking women to be shown by projector if we had one! Next time, the seeds are set... and possibility grows.

Flowers with the lumix

Am using a camera borrowed from LSBU, never wanted anything to bulky but I need some more control. Pictures are more crisp..
or parts are. I can investigate places, spaces, happenings with these tools...
I can wonder, worry, wake with a look at these..
and they are pretty but
there's so much more than pretty that goes on, sweet williams..

On the eve of the budget cuts - Do we have a choice?

I popped into college today, partly to see about kit and also it was National day of Action to defend education. I didn't know what was going on at LSBU but through someone heard a little. It reminded me of the fact that everywhere I turn right now, the axe is falling or hovering overhead.

So what do you do? What do I do? Sit back comfortably and let it pass over me, or do I take part? And here, in this, do I weave in my world so completely? Or will I regret the opportunity to selfishly 'create'?! That suggests that responding or connecting to the real world context is not selfish, it is. It still is, for me too.

After looking at kit, and possibilities, I thought about the projects I might want to do... complete ways of seeing 40, yes and perhaps develop it. Upload the version of Last Picture of you onto youtube, there is a spelling mistake but what the hell?! I always wanted to come back to that and perhaps animate the piece and add workshops... maybe, sometime, maybe.

But on the eve of the budget, as I stood within the LSBU protest, I know we have a choice. I have a choice and I want to share some of what I am seeing, get closer.

I got a train to liverpool, 16 years old, and walked into the end of one of the most exciting and also challenging parts of recent British working class history. I get lucky sometimes.. The Liverpool 47 were councillors who decided not to set a budget within the boundaries the Tories had set out, they punished the city for voting labour with £500million less grants than previously. The 47, with many people behind them set a budget which let the city begin to breathe.

I spoke to a friend, and photographer, who I met then. We will interview a few people next week, its a massive project, but I don't want to walk away from this, however dodgy my production skills are. Your there, waiting to be opened up and shared. And I will learn, as I do more about you and I need to.

Funny, some months ago, I made a quick not overly planned short called INSIDE OUT. (I have re-edited part of this, the end closer to the begining and sound levels more sorted. Needs more work, though it may have served a purpose..) Towards the end of the film, two books are side by side, ' The artist way' & 'Liverpool a City that dared to fight'.

To do list by Sep

1.Reading

1. Dada turns Red - Finish last 40 pages. Write summary - identify someone/some method to discuss this with someone else.

2. Gramsci prison notebooks - Write summary - see if anyone else is reading this to discuss.

3. TU and Media - see if I can find, look at methods and learning elements. Glasgow Media

2. Create a blog as part of process to remember, document process and potentially engage. Images, links, words, reviews.

June - July - Created. Update past MA notebook info and weekly add current updates.

Aug - Dec - Update weekly

Considerations - Do I want this to go up solely for me? Or do I need to engage with others in MA so its a dialogue outside of me?

What does it become if used solely? Or if its shared?

3. Groups

1. Collectif - Meet July, with shared info on previous collectives.

2. Rooftop - meet july/Aug - First open meeting to discuss potential purpose?

3. MA Group - Meet x2 between now and Sep.

4. Discuss with CPBF future and previous work on Industrial resistance and how to work across unions. Example of BA dispute and forthcoming disputes.

4. Skills

1. Rough cut of Inside out - Sep shot over 3 hours as process to remember how to do basic editing.

2. Shoot interviews and footage for 2 pieces SEP - Practice sound, image framing and capturing to edit.

3. Dyslexia - Develop understanding and techniques on how to manage and learn. Share with others too.

4. Request modules - Video installation, Still image, Camera for Oct Term.

5. Watch/Look

1. Striking women - Theatre and write short review for blog and socialist

2. Man with movie camera - Film. Short notes on style and purpose.

3. Plus one more to ID.

6.Art & Politics

July- Sep Consider and respond to - what does this project have to do with creativity?

Perhaps creative responses...within blog? Surrealist manifesto?

7. Method

Look at methods and commit to 2-3 max - Multimedia, blog, event, film, etc.

Look at event dates and draft schedule from May 2011 to Sep 2010. What do I want to see by the end of this journey?

Day 2 - MA Symposium - walking

Ways of Seeing (John Berger)

I do think I have read this... but I can't recall the detail. So here it is... short bit size snacks of Berger et al. There seems to be the documentary, very long, on youtube, which this book came from. The played with form and had 5 people creating it.

On reflection

Creating a memory

Mainly going to use this for the MA I am doing. Though my MA is also about, and interwoven in, my life. Perhaps a place to REMEMBER? This is the first blog bit I am doing without writing down... I like the feel of paper and how I can write on it.

I found this that I have been sharing with others:

How do people remember

10% of what they read.

20% of what they hear.

30% of what they see.

50% of what they hear and see.

70% of what they say and write.

90% of what they say as they do something.

Previous posts are taken from the black notebook, images taken, odd review and some poems from this year.

So these two days were good, sometimes I wanted to walk away and sometimes I wanted to walk in more, but couldn't... Do I have to understand and engage in every single thing? Or can I sit back sometimes and float away, let the words dance around me... sometimes dance with me.

After Supervision

Met with Anna to go over feedback on Proposal. Too broad at has little to do with making creative work at present. Maybe I got lost trying to respond to the 4 dimensions of study?

Scribbles on the Proposal