do I have time for a second life?

After going to the presentation yesterday, I felt very enthusiastic about the potential of Second Life as a tool for teaching and learning. So finally, against all the odds, I have got myself an avatar and have spent my first evening exploring. First I went to a 'mall' where newbies like myself were meant to be able to find more out - but quite how one went about this was not clear. I read a bit about changing my appearance and tweaked it a bit - taller, slimmer - as I would like in my first life. Hot places to visit were not particularly interesting and not many people were around. All a bit lonely and boring really. So I decided to visit ucreative island - also empty. There was an 'interactive whiteboard' so I tried to interact with it and ended up losing control of my avatar to a little blue blob for no apparent reason other than to move it up, down, left and right!! What was that all about? Very disappointing, but I was probably missing something - what? There was also no instructions about how to get my movements back to normal which impeded my explorations for the rest of the evening and resulted in me flying sideways through a rainforest!! Great graphics but they crashed my computer.

The Uni is thinking about starting a new degree in computer gaming and it is possible that I would be asked to teach on this course - so I feel I should persevere with this in an attempt to carve out a relevant area of expertise. Reckon I'll have to ask my son to help me with the basics as I can't see how I will have time to complete the learning curve in tutorials. I don't particularly want to start building and so on, but I am very interested in Second Life's potential to pilot new methods of teaching, communicating with students and colleagues at other campuses, showing student work, disseminating research and so on. Coincidentally the Guardian Education ran a short piece about this today.

return to blogging

I have been too busy to think about blogging recently: finishing one project with the students and starting another, trying to put together Ikea storage and so on. Since September my daughter has been at school for half days only, but now she has finally started full days. Hopefully I have a decent span of time to collect my thoughts, get involved with projects and finish things off that I've started.

A few notable things are in the offing... I am about to lead a digital photography project at my children's school. I volunteered to help out for a half day each week thinking I would listen to reading, but was asked to do something arty. 'my school' will involve working with each KS2 class for a period of 6 weeks from January through to the summer. There will be small interim exhibitions within the school and, hopefully, a final one for parents and public. I'm trying to get UCA involved but being passed around from one department to another. The new University has a remit to get involved in the community so I have every confidence someone will be supportive eventually. At the very least, I hope to get some student volunteers from Digital Film and Screen Arts (our newly named BA!!) to help my out as professional practice.

On Friday 21st November Grace Lau and I are finally meeting the Womens' Art Library to show them the Exposures archive. They are travelling to Hampstead to meet us so must have a serious interest. There are some complicated copyright issues that we have to settle as we are not able to contact all the workshop participants now so much time has elapsed, but hopefully we can sort something out in relation to this.

What else? Oh yes. I've been spending quite a lot of time using PhotoShop CS3 with raw files as D60s are available for the students to use. Still haven't got my Mac but managing to get by with a student one for the time being. Will work more on 'High Gabble' once my computer arrives. Lastly, I'm looking forward to learning a bit more about Second Life and how it can be used for eductional purposes next Monday. Also hope to meet up with Home Interaction Cluster soon to figure out whether my interests and research fit with the other members in any useful way.

'performance' development review

Aha! Just realised it is my 'performance' that is being reviewed rather than my personal development needs! A misunderstanding of the meaning of the acronym.

personal development review

Can the use of a Mac and software be regarded as 'training'? Yes, there is a great deal to be gained from having a project in progress and finding out what you need to do to achieve specific needs - but does this equate with 'proper' training. I don't think so. We need to subscribe to an online or DVD training package that will update us with new versions of software as we introduce them at UCA. And we need to be given the time during working hours to use this package. I need to document this in my pdr which, at the moment, seems totally focussed on what I can do for the course/UCA, rather than any form of personal development for myself.

after the summer

Nearly two months since my last post! The holidays flew past and now I'm back at work. Amelia started school last week. I don't know where the last 4 years went, never mind the last couple of months. 

I am trying to assess what I achieved during my research leave before the summer. Need to go back and take another look at the 'High Gabble' rough cut. I think I will use mostly still images rather than video. Pick up shots are out of the question as Mum and Dad finally completed on the sale of the house a couple of weeks ago. I am pretty sure I have enough material to make something. I also want to use some of the photographs, scribblings, bits and pieces that we rescued(?) from the house on the last visit. I am still working my way through bags and boxes stacked in my office. It is very strange looking at all these fragments of the past and I have found Mum's refusal, even anger, about wanting to have, or look at, any of this stuff, very difficult to deal with. It feels like I'm on a very lonely journey which one would normally make after the death of a parent. But perhaps the death has already taken place. Mum is so changed and different to the woman that I see smiling in many of those photos. Yet in some ways she is so much better than this time last year. I just wish she would show some sign of affection towards her grandchildren and give some indication that she enjoys life. These type of expressions are very rarely, if ever, forthcoming. It's so sad. For me, for her and for Sam and Amelia. Dad seems oblivious! 

Anyway, I digress...

I also hope to finalise arrangements with Goldsmiths for the Exposures archive, but this is something else that I need child-free time to sort out. I do not feel ready to talk to Sam about my old work yet, although I hope I can at some point in the future. Goldsmiths have asked us to make an inventory of everything we have so I will put this together over the next few weeks and then meet them with Grace Lau hopefully sometime in October. 

So - not huge progress, but small steps. One can only do so much in 12.5 days! But this year I should be able to up this time considerably in the half of the week I am not lecturing. From November when Amelia starts full time, I hope to properly reassess my aims and objectives to reach a clearer methodology as regards my research.

last visit to the family home

My brother and I  have been back to our family home for what is likely to be the last time. We worked really hard in the heat to salvage what we could of mum and dad's belongings before the BHF came and took various furniture and electricals. The buyers have said they will dispose of the rest which is a huge relief. Mum was very overwhelmed and unhappy when I took back various boxes of photos, momentos and other paraphernalia for her to sort through. She said she had wanted us to throw all this stuff away. There is not way I could bring myself to ruthlessly dispose of her memories - the lock of baby hair and so on. Now she has calmed down I think we will probably sort it together. I wonder how that will be?? I wonder if I will learn anything more about our family, her depressions and anxiety and so on.  I wonder if I could make an audio tape of these sessions...

I didn't manage to take any more images - too much work to do! I did find the 'high gable' sign that used to hang over the front door.

update on exposures archive

Good news! It seems that the Womens' Art Library at Goldsmiths are very interested in our archive material. We hope to meet in September when everyone returns from vacation. I think we should be able to get a really good collection of photographs, press cuttings and video together for them.  

cs3, final cut and research

I've spent my last two official research days following a tutorial for PhotoShop CS3. There are some new additions and changes that look quite interesting so I look forward to getting the update in the near future to try out some of these features. Last week I spent some time in Final Cut Pro trying out some ideas with the HD video I shot at my parents house. I put together some good visual sequences over a conversation between myself and the estate agent. Ultimately I think I will include many of the digitial stills that I shot as these allow for a more contemplative consideration of the piece. Trying to figure out how to change the aspect ratio of these to match the 16:9 of the video. I will be visiting my parents house for the last time next Saturday and intend to take my stills camera again. The British Heart Foundation are clearing a couple of lorry loads from the house but I am not sure that I will have the emotional or physical creative space to get to grips with any more video over there.

more pictures from paris

daniel's appartmentout the window and over the rooftopsthe thinker lost in thoughtan eiffle of the seine

delicious pastriesxxxxxxx

I love my phone

When I'm at home I have a picture of Big Ben on my phone, when I can't get a signal there is green fields, when I was in Crete there was a picture of the Acropolis - and look what I got in Paris!!

paris

Spent last weekend in Paris with old pal Pauline and staying with mutual friend Daniel. What a wonderful time we had. Daniel's amazing appartment is very central, near Bastille, so we did loads of walking, visiting the Rodin Museum, Pompidou Centre, and taking in the sights. We were also lucky to see the Melies - the Magician Of Cinema exhibition at The Cinematheque Francaise - a great opportunity to catch up on the work of a pioneer in special FX that I previously knew little about. Popped along to visit the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde in the amazing Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. Add to that some wonderful food and wine together with tasty cake and foot baths provided by our host - a real treat! Pauline and I are already planning to get away to the Venice Biennale next year...

research profile and demo of work

The following links to my UCCA research page

http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=9596

The link below is to a pilot project for academics and artists to upload their work to web. My 3 screen HD video piece, living room, takes ages to download and only works on pcs. reconnection loads quickly, but is likely to only work on pcs too. Will be trying to resolve this for Mac users in the near future.

http://kultur-demo.eprints.org/view/creators/Gunn,_Rosie.html

smack the mac

I'm not doing very well with the Mac. I managed to exceed our download limit this month by not understanding that the Mac puts downloads into a pallette and you have to find the file and click it in here to open it to the desktop. I downloaded a large file several times thinking that it wasn't happening. Don't like Safari. Kept crashing on me and I can't figure out why. Also there is no indication of it loading pages like the wobbly flag you get with Explorer.

I have tried to watch some basic tutorial videos to familiarise me with the OS but these mostly push Apple products that I don't have and don't relate to the college software that has been pre-loaded. Guess I'll struggle on but I keep returning to the PC (that's where I am now) just to make expedient progress.

exposures archive

A couple of months back I was looking through materials generated by the Women Photo Men and Men Review Women photo workshops that we used to run at Exposures after chatting to Steve Littman about future my research direction. There are many interesting photographs and the testimonials of participants are very poignant. I wondered whether there was any scope for a book or website to publish the material so it could be accessed by students or researchers interested in gender studies. Also there seems to be a resurgance of media interest in the definition of masculinity and the reluctance of some men to see their bodies as desirable.

To try to decide what to do with this material, I contacted dear friends and colleagues, Grace Lau and Robin Shaw, and they came to lunch yesterday. It was so lovely to see them. Nearly 5 years since I saw Grace and probably over 10 since Robin and I met up. After lots of catch up chat about our current projects and interests we started to look through the material. It is fairly certain that we would have a problem with releases if we tried to publish many of the images and it would be difficult to contact the models and participants since so much time has passed. None of us has the inclination or the time to take this on. We have decided to see whether the Womens' Library at London Metropolitan University or the Womens' Art Library at Goldsmiths would be interested in adding the materials to their collection.

kalives, crete

Flew back from a wonderful break in Crete on Tuesday evening (already it feels like the distant past). I had forgotten that it is actually possible to have a relaxing holiday. I guess Amelia has finally reached the age where things get a bit easier so that is part of it. But just to be somewhere with no rain, a pool just a leap from the door and beautiful views across the Souda bay. Wow! It was glorious. Mark and the children played in the pool most mornings while I was able to sit in the sun and read, snack lunch, trip in the afternoon (beach, mountains, lake, Chania etc) and then dinner in a taverna each evening. I've put on nearly half a stone.

high gabble

One of the first in the series of stills I shot at my parents' home last Monday.

research time and technical hitches

This week I have been trying to get up and running with the Mac. I wanted to capture the HD video I shot with the Sony Z1 into Final Cut Pro. What a nightmare. I spent most of Tuesday trying various codecs but couldn't get device control. Steve Littman came over on Wednesday and discovered that the Mac needed to install various updates from the web but because it has been given a student spec I do not have priviledges to do that. He managed to get the password so by Thursday I was able to begin capture. Unfortunately I still don't have proper device control to set in and out points, so I have had to capture the video as big long takes that I will have to make into subclips. Looking at what I have shot, I am not sure there is much I can do with it. I prefer the digital stills that I shot at my parents house. I think I was so overcome by the emotion of being there and having to engage with the practical issues, that I didn't really permit myself the time for creative reflection as I hoped I would do.

bad attitudes to young people

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/09/children.youngpeople

Was shocked by this recent report. I see plenty of evidence of the bad attitudes to young people in the local press in this area. The kids around here need more to do, not constant criticism. Gostrey Meadow is apparently a 'no go' area now as it is full of drunken youth!

macbook pro

At last I've got my hands on a Mac!! When I started working at UCCA back in 1999 I was shocked to find out that all the studios had PCs but over the years I have grown to like them and we have a couple of Sony Viaos at home. Shock! horror! They decided to change back to Macs the year before last and I have been teaching PhotoShop, Final Cut Pro and so on without really getting to grips with the Mac OS. This can be incredibly undermining when you are being projected at the front of the class. After repeated requests for a Mac to take home to learn on, I have eventually picked one up today and I'm sitting here making this post on it!!! Very excited just to do everyday tasks on it, but also hope to get to use it for my 'high gabble' project that I started yesterday... that's another story.

birth rites

My colleague, Liz, has just given me a feature from the Guardian about this exhibition on childbirth. Need to explore more...

http://www.birthrites.org.uk/index.php?id=320

mother ivey's bay

Back from camping in gales and torrential rain. I had about 3 hours sleep each night with the tent flapping keeping me awake. We had a couple of sunnyish days on the beach so I suppose that makes it all worthwhile. It took up a day to pack up the car, half a day to pitch, half a day to pack away and probably more than a day to work through the laundry mountain when we got home, so not particulary effective use of our holiday time. No wonder I have lost my voice from exhaustion. I think Sam and Amelia enjoyed themselves in the main, but think they were a bit fed up with all the stress the weather and sheer hard work caused us.

It was lovely to see our friends Liz, Mike and the boys there who told us about Mother Ivey's years ago. Liz has been holidaying there since her childhood. They were in a caravan and kindly froze the freezer blocks for us each day. Also caught up with Ann who has just recently moved to Perren Porth. What a lovely creative home she has there. My kids asked question after question about all her wonderful arty things: masks, paintings, puppets and so on. Good luck to her with her wonderful paintings - particularly enjoyed the surfing hares!

high gabble

Last November my parents moved to sheltered accommodation near me in Farnham leaving the family home in Chigwell, Essex after 35 years. Two weeks after moving my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and spent several months on a psychiatric ward before having a ‘successful’ mastectomy in February 2008 and then returning to the psychiatric ward. She was discharged at the beginning of this month. She and my father are now beginning to think about selling the family home. I am taking cameras to the house in early June to photograph and film what remains. I am not sure what will emerge from this undertaking but the working title of the work ‘High Gabble’ - courtesy of my dear Auntie Renee now deceased - is a play on the name of the house, ‘High Gable’, and is a pretty accurate reflection on my mother’s highly emotional mood swings throughout my own childhood.

There is much is the media about a deficit of funds to care for the growing elderly population. There is much in the media about a deficit of funds to treat the mentally ill. This work will hopefully engage in a thoughtful way with these debates.

some photographs

Margaret Salmon

Continuing on with my research into other artists, I am also interested to discover more about the filmmaker Margaret Salmon who won last years MaxMara women-only art prize having just become a mother. The prize funded her proposal to make a trilogy of films in Italy around the theme of the lullaby. I understand this work is now complete and that her husband and baby were able to travel with her. It was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery at the beginning of this year and unfortunately missed it but apparently she filmed three very tired new mothers. Writing in the Evening Standard, Nick Haworth says ‘Each film presents a day in the life of an Italian mother. A softly sung Florentine lullaby, Ninna Nanna Fiorentina, provides their soothing and melancholy soundtrack. This gently depressive element pervades the work as the women spend much of the day in the dark, sunlight creeping in only through gaps in curtains. Two of them wear only nightclothes, surrendering every personal concern to the rhythms of childcare. Though in constant contact with their babies, they are shown here isolated and alone. It's hard not to feel a kind of pity for this rawly instinctive love that is not always reciprocated.'

Catherine Elwes

In the 80s video artist Catherine Elwes made work such as There Is A Myth (about breastfeeding her son) and First House (the 3 year old distracts the mother from what she is doing by tapping on the window). Elwes suggested this work was not just autobiographical and placed it in the context of her previous feminist artwork. Likewise, I used last year’s seminar to think through the relationship between my current practice and my pre-children work as a photographer of the male body and as a feminist against censorship. Making this connection was important for me to have conviction in my current practice. Elwes has also suggested that domestically based installation work is an effect of feminism’s breaking down the barriers between personal and public. I also noted that she suggested that the need of women artists to do this could be a response to the disillusionment or powerlessness to affect wider public politics outside the home (lack of time to be effective!) and I recognise this as a possible motivation within my own practice.

equal ops for mums at work

Just doing an e-learning module on Diversity in the Workplace which links to this:
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,2259070,00.html

It seems that we face in-built discrimination at interviews, never mind facing up to the emotional push and pull that takes place between employer and family once we get the job. I suppose I can see the pitfalls for small companies - perhaps they need more government support.

sorting out the camping kit

That's what we have been doing this weekend. Airing out smelly sleeping bags, buying a new chairs, table and other bits and pieces. Ordered a fan heater! Off to Mother Ivey's, Cornwall next Saturday. Just checked the long range weather forecast. Looks like a real mixture of possibilities. Please - let's hope we have a good fun, relaxing week!

Sally Mann

To date, I think the artist with whom I draw the most parallels would be Sally Mann. The discussion around her work has mostly concerned pornography, photography and representations of children. My images are not as overtly sexual as many of hers, but I do not steer away from this area deliberately. Jane Fletcher’s paper Uncanny Resemblances provides a useful analysis of Mann’s work through Cixous’ notion of a blurring of the boundaries between binary oppositions that prop up patriarchal society and suggests that Mann’s pictures allow the co-existence of what is traditionally considered diametrically opposed. She analyses three of Mann’s photographs, The Wet Bed, Fallen Child and Virginia in the Sun in these terms and concludes by considering Mann’s role as a mother and photographer, and photography’s relation to the ‘real’. I do not propose to recount Fletcher’s analysis here, but here are some of her comments about the work that interested me:

‘Through every day events which every mother has seen, the photographs provoke a feeling of strangeness, a ‘dread and horror’ which is elusive but insistent. ‘

‘It is disconcerting because of the contradictory states of childish innocence and adult sexuality that it simultaneously points to.’

‘It is tender and terrible simultaneously. The familiar becomes unnervingly unfamiliar.’

‘Mann expresses the contradictions that are inherited from a romantic myth that positions children as sexless and childhood as eternal. In doing so, she reveals and perpetuates simultaneously a crisis in how we depict and consume pictures of children.’

‘It is no coincidence that Mann, as one who moves across a set of prescribed opposites herself artist/creator versus mother/procreator – should engage with the contradictions of childhood that her children exhibit. Nor, unfortunately, is it a surprise that critics accused her of bad-mothering in a final attempt to discredit her troubling images. If we acknowledge that the distinction made between photographer and mother is not in actuality clear cut belongs, instead, to a specific system of binary thought, Immediate Family once again subverts an ideal; the ideal of motherhood.’

‘Immediate Family ‘violates’ sentimentalised images of childhood and also dispels notions of the mother as secondary to the child: secondary and silenced. Mann is an ambitious practitioner and a proud mother… To mother and to photograph cease to be two distinct occupations; they sustain one another. In doing so, they upset our cherished ideas about what motherhood and childhood should entail.’

Finally: ‘Photography’s relation to the real has always been disputed. Linked to its referent like a child is linked to its mother, the photograph is both truth and not truth, reality and representation.’

Assessments and Research

I'm on campus at UCCA every day this week. Two days of first year assessments and three days of third year assessments. I love this time of year - it's like going to a film festival for a whole week! It's great to see that most of the students that I taught two years ago have matured and produced some outstanding films, interactive artwork, multiscreen installations and so on as their graduation work. There are definitely some undergraduates to watch over the next couple of years too. Next week will be formal marking and feedback.

This busy work schedule has meant calling on favours from friends to look after the children. We will reward ourselves with some 'family time' at half term when we go camping in Cornwall - let's hope we have good weather. After the external examiners have reported and the Progression Board is over, then hopefully I will get a few weeks research leave. I have already booked out a high definition video camera with a view to making some work at my parents house which will probably have to be sold sometime soon.

Last Wednesday I took my mum to buy a bra after her recent mastectomy. On May 21st, my birthday, I am taking her to be fitted with a prosthesis. The date of the appointment is somewhat ironic. The breast that nurtured me at birth is to be replaced by a false one on the same day 48 years on...

Sacrificial Motherhood?

I discovered a current research project being undertaken at the University of Brighton by Annie (Hsiao-Ching) Wang. The title of her investigation is The Creativity of Motherhood: Self-Representation over a Time of Growth in Contemporary Taiwan. Her project is more focussed on self portraiture than my own work. She suggests that self-representation is the most important element in announcing the self-determination of the mother to inhabit the world of images. She says ‘By doing so, I attempt to challenge the great number of stereotypical images of the selfless mother.’ Three of her five research questions are again about self-representation: how do I use self-representation to express my own experience of motherhood? What are the conventional codes of representation used to depict motherhood in visual art? How do contemporary women artists use self-representation to represent their motherhood? It seems that Wang’s project, then, is quite different to my own – not only because she is interested in contradicting the stereotypes in her own Taiwanese society – but also because it seems that she proposes to make images of herself as mother in order to counter the stereotype of sacrificial motherhood.

Having said this, sacrificial motherhood is my reality. Putting my needs first is very rarely possible. My existence is pretty much determined by the needs of others - not just children, but partner, parents, friends, employers, students – the list goes on. As an artist I am driven to document this in order to survive it and I strive to make sense of it in my work. I have to negotiate with my family for it to be possible for me to make any artwork at all. By definition the work has to be made by intuition, impulse and expediency. As I write this my daughter wakes up and I have to stop!! See what I mean? My practice has to reflect this by being fluid and flexible. A neat and well articulated methodology may firstly set me up to fail the objectives and secondly stifle creative outcomes. That is my fear.

ron mueck

I was recently reading about Ron Mueck’s Mother and Child, one of his smaller, approx half life size sculptures, of a mother startled by the presence of her new born baby resting slimy on her stomach. Apparently the curator Colin Wiggins took his own mother to the exhibition and she stood in front of the sculpture speechless for a long time. Finally she said ‘Yes, that’s what it is like’. I would love the audience to react that way to my work. It is somewhat surprising that this work is by a male artist, but it seems certain that his mother-in-law, Paula Rego, has had an influence on his work. I am more interested in how motherhood could enhance the direction of women artists work. I am particularly excited when my audience recognise something in my work that is relevant to their experience of motherhood or childhood memory.

living room

This three screen high definition video artwork is a family portrait of types. It is a rather claustrophobic and chaotic piece that pretty accurately reflects the dominance that the children have in our shared space over the holiday period. This is a stage in a much larger body of work that I have been developing around images of childhood that, I hope, show something other than ‘innocence’. Since the late 90s I have been interested in my son’s games, words, songs and drawings and have made other work around these themes. Recently my daughter is also becoming part of this work.

Good job my kids like performing. They have both seen the piece and given it the thumbs up. That’s great because I think the dialogue I have with my kids about the work I make is really important. I continue to ponder the implications of featuring my children in artwork that I might exhibit publicly and want to include them as part of a playful process in it’s development. I hope they regard the resulting images as representing celebration, desire, passionate attachment as well as difficulty, trouble and tension. Already I am aware that Sam’s view of what I make changes rapidly with the passage of time and this is something that I hope to look at in future work.

living room

This is an experiment in posting an image - a still from the 3 screen HD video work made for the National Review of live art. I hope to try to post some video in the near future.

playground facilities for 10+ kids

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/30/children.health
Having read the link above, I wonder if Waverley could provide more facilities for the 10+ age group in Rowledge/Boundstone area. A baskball hoop on the rec or Burnt Hill Road field (with one swing only!!). In the recent refurbishment of playground equipment there was nothing for this age group. My 10 year old is not interested in slides!! We need somewhere safe and fun for our kids in double figure to meet up. As a lecturer Digital Screen Arts I am well aware of the results of Tanya Byron's enquiry into kids' online lives but they need to balance indoors activity with outdoor activity and, for this age group, this means independent play and social activity as well as organised activities.
Rosie Gunn
Senior Lecturer - Digital Screen Arts
University College for the Creative Arts

Dear Rosie,

Thank you for your email. I will endeavour to answer your questions and I will also forward your email to our Parks Department who are responsible for fixed play equipment in the borough which includes development and refurbishment. My role as the Communtiy Development Officer for Youth is to work with local partners both voluntary and statutory for young people aged 13 to 19 years and 25 if they have a special need, however I am fully aware that there is a gap in provision for 9 and upwards in the way of fixed play equipment. The borough has recently been awarded a Big Lottery Children's Play Grant to develop play provision in the borough and in order to obtain the grant we had to develop a play strategy (please find attached) which highlighted the need to create areas for the older age group. When applying for the funding we had to identify the projects we would like to develop in partnership with the local community. The Big Lottery Fund will be used to create an over 9's playground in Cranleigh, a multi use games area at Holloway Hill in Godalming and to fund a 3 year play project coordinator who's role will be to develop play activities in the rural areas of the borough and help deliver the action plan in conjunction with other departments and local communities in the borough. The plan is that this officer will be able to work with local communities to help source funding and develop further activities. The officer should be in post by the end of May. Over the past few years the council has installed a range of fixed activities for the older age group which include 4 skate parks, 4 multi use games area across the borough and has worked in partnership with various agencies to provide youth shelters and further games areas and older children play areas. The council is continuing to develop this work to other areas of the borough. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me or contact Ann James from the parks department on 01483 523447 or at ann.james@waverley.gov.uk kind regards katie Katie WebbCommunity Development Officer (Youth)Waverley Borough CouncilEnvironment and LeisureThe BurysGodalmingSurreyGU7 1HRTel No: 01483 523340 or 0784 161 8630For further information on young people in Waverley visit http://www.waverley.gov.uk/youngpeople/

research and working from home

Despite two 10 year olds 'wrestling' on the Wii behind me I have managed to complete student feedback on the recent digital imaging project so I will hopefully be ahead of myself at the end of the semester. This is around the time my 'official' research time will start, so it's important to try to clear the decks if I am actually to achieve anything in 10 days.

Last year I spent most of my off campus research time in June and July looking for sheltered accommodation for my mother and father who subsequently moved into the area in November. My mother has been ill in hospital almost ever since and is due to be discharged next week. Balancing work and research with family and home has been quite a major challenge since about this time last year. I haven't managed to make a research presentation at UCCA, but figure that is probably OK since I made two presentations the previous year. I also achieved an 'output' ahead of taking my research leave. I made a three screen high definition video work 'living room' that was shown at the National Review of Live Art, Tramway, Glasgow and subsequently travelled to Thessalonika for the Strange Screen Festival.

Anyway - the pressure is on to achieve another output soon. I have thought about going back to an archive of old work created pre-family to publish a book or create a website, but I am not sure my heart is in this project. I want to move on and devote precious time to projects that are more relevant to my life as it is now.

Communications? O2, DHL and South West Trains

This is a rant. I spent all day Friday waiting for my new mobile phone to be delivered by DHL. It didn't arrive. A day of the children's holiday wasted! DHL's website tracking system is down all weekend, 02 customer services are sympathetic, but offer no effective help. I have no idea where it is or when it will arrive apart from the fact that I have clearly stated I will be at work Monday and Tuesday. I arrive at work today (Monday) and O2 have sent me an email saying it will be delivered to my home address today. So much for the new age of communication!! However I will receive a £10 credit - whoopee...

All this is somewhat ironic after my attempts last weekend to get to the Filmobile conference were scuppered by South West Trains. I spent all Saturday morning travelling between Farnham-Woking-Farnham and not reaching London due to engineering works and eventual signal failure too. Needless to say I still don't have a refund for my ticket.

What should I blog about?

Over the last few days I have been trying to think how I should use this blog. Will it just be for research purposes, or should it also examine more personal concerns. Like many other women artists, I find it so difficult to seperate out all the layers of my life (particularly when the children are on Easter break!!). In fact much of my research and visual work is about family life, so it seems quite important to take a holistic approach to writing this if it is to serve any useful purpose in moving on my ideas and saying something relevant to any possible interested audience somewhere down the line.

My 4 year old daughter joins my 10 year old son at school September so I am beginning to think about what to do with a bit more time on my hands. I went to a SEEDA funded conference about women setting up their own businesses which was quite inspiring. I have a few ideas that I may try to develop - perhaps as a 'social enterprise' - but my thoughts are still taking shape. I want to draw some connections between my teaching at the University College for Creative Arts, my own photo/video practice, the students and their work. Perhaps some sales opportunities - artmarket for all concerned together with workshop/networking opportunities - but not sure what format will pull all those strands together. I belong to the 'Home Interaction Research Cluster' (they haven't included my name on web page yet!) at UCCA and 'The Home' - as a 'container' for the family and (in contradication!) as a working base - will be a significant feature in developing my ideas. http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=17006

Testing Testing 123

I have been thinking about creating a much-needed web presence for a while now. Daunted by the task of creating a 'proper' web site, here I am with a first attempt at blogging. Hopefully this will be a place for me to collect my thoughts about past, present and future projects. Let's see how it goes...