Home > Blogs > The Editorial: The Planning Season > The World Doesn't Stop Just Because You're Busy

Blogs

The World Doesn't Stop Just Because You're Busy

by Ruth Barker, 4 Nov 2010

Hello,

Sometimes I do wish it would at least slow down (the world that is). Still, it’s always good to be busy. Mapping the Future went well, I think. I’ve read back through my Blog entries for the events and my toes have curled with the amount of typos I found. Blame my enthusiasm for getting the posts up in record time. So one of my jobs for the next while is a gradual proof-reading and correcting of the masses of text. Apologies to anyone who found the errors truly painful.

KEN NEIL’S SUMMARY OF ALL THE EVENTS IS NOW AVAILABLE HERE!

One of the best things about the event for me was the opportunity to speak to lots of people whom I usually just email. And also, of course to meet some new people. I thought I’d report back on just a few of those conversations.

Firstly, Damian Killeen of Big Things on the Beach told me about the brilliant web documentation of the Creative Time Summit 2: Revolutions in Public Practice. Go have a trawl, it’s really great.

Secondly, Anne Petrie of Creative Scotland suggested something that I’m still mulling over. She questioned the fetish of The New in contemporary public art discourse. Why are we always struggling towards new things, or trying to find out what’s going to be next? Thanks for that, Anne. I don’t have an answer for you unless it’s something vague about the human condition, but I do think it’s a damned good question.

I’ve been thinking this week about how some of the conversations and ideas from Mapping can be carried on, on PAR+RS.
I’d like to pick up on something that came up in Day 3’s discussion and have some coverage of BAD public art projects. Projects and pieces that have failed in someone’s eyes (though of course failure, just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder). So please get in touch if you have a piece you’d like to suggest. I haven’t quite decided what form the article will take and it may well be guided by your ideas, so let me have them! I already have a piece of my own that I’d like to volunteer as an example of failure, but it’d be good if others were bold enough to share their own bad experiences too. But we’re also happy to receive nominations for works that aren’t your own of course.

I’m also keen to commission an article about the history (and present) of public art in Seattle, looking at the legacy of its percent for art ordinance. I feel like Seattle often gets name-dropped in these kind of conversations, but it’d be an interesting subject to really explore. Let me know if you feel like this is something you’d like to take on, as I’ll be looking for a writer. We pay a small fee for all our commissioned features. Just drop me a line at the usual address.

What else, readers? Let me know which bits of the conversation you’d like to know more about and I’ll do my very best. Remember that our upcoming Season (starting in a few weeks) will be Planning, so think about that as a loose guide.

I was back in Dundee yesterday and saw a picture of the winning design for the new V&A. Very nice! I did lean towards the Stephen Holl proposal, but Kengo Kuma’s does perhaps does look a mite more practical.

Finally, I thought I’d send you this link to a new online commission I was working on for Intersections. Let me know what you think.



At The Temple To An Unknown God, Ruth Barker, 2010

More later,
R.

Comments

  1. 20 Nov 2010

    T Aikenhead

    Dear Ruth (if I may?) your response is wonderfully illuminating and helps clarify the authorship and policy of the site completely. If I might be so bold as to suggest that you might consider an ‘about’ section on the website, with the information from your last comment – I have to admit that I had got the ‘wrong end of the stick’ about who was running the site and why (a perception that had made me a little suspicious of the intent of the project)
    Please accept my apologies if I have caused you any offence previously – I wholeheartedly admire the commitment and passion you are investing in this endeavour.

    Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.

  2. 20 Nov 2010

    T Aikenhead

    Dear Ruth (if I may?) your response is wonderfully illuminating and helps clarify the authorship and policy of the site completely. If I might be so bold as to suggest that you might consider an ‘about’ section on the website, with the information from your last comment – I have to admit that I had got the ‘wrong end of the stick’ about who was running the site and why (a perception that had made me a little suspicious of the intent of the project)
    Please accept my apologies if I have caused you any offence previously – I wholeheartedly admire the commitment and passion you are investing in this endeavour.

    Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.

  3. 18 Nov 2010

    Ruth Barker

    Hello T.

    There are lots of points here, and I hope you don’t mind if I tackle them one at a time.

    I’ll start with the issues you raise in the comment below I Am The Space Where I Am, and will continue with those voiced in the comment here.

    PAR+RS was launched in 2007, and was created in response to a period of consultation carried out by the then Scottish Arts Council. It was felt that the resource needed an independent (non SAC) Editor, and this position was put out to tender. I have Editorial autonomy from Creative Scotland, who fund the site.

    In terms of PAR+RS’ beneficiaries, I would hope that they are our readers? Perhaps I’ve misunderstood your question – apologies if so. PAR+RS doesn’t make any money, if that’s what you mean.

    ‘Advisory Group’ does sound very formal, I agree, but this small group isn’t paid, is voluntary, and meets very irregularly. Because I work from home, and independently, I wanted some people from whom I could get some occasional feedback, and who could cast an outside eye every so often.
    Jean Cameron was chosen because of her knowledge of live art and performance; Neil Mulholland because of his links with Edinburgh College of Art; and Graham Fagen because of his links with Duncan of Jordanston College of Art and Design.
    Neil, Graham, and Jean are not contracted, and no formal agreement is in place with any of them.

    Website Sections
    Blogs. These are invited commentaries from people working on live projects. In practice, ‘invited’ means that individuals cannot set up a blog by themselves on the PAR+RS site, in the same way that one can on some other dedicated blog sites. Blogs arise both from projects I approach, and from individuals who approach me. The blogs are open submission – anyone can suggest a blog.
    In April 2010 we had a problem with copyright of an uncredited image that appeared on the Public Art Scotland site. As a result of this, our blogs are currently ‘hidden’ until we can legally resolve the issue. Our current bloggers are aware of this, and we’ll be contacting them as soon as the issue is resolved, at which time their blogs will reappear. I can only apologise for the continued inconvenience that this is causing. There are 17 blogs currently on the PAR+RS site, all of which bar one are sadly hidden at the moment.

    Reflections
    These are totally open submission, although we usually ask that contributors have a direct link to the project they are discussing – either as an artist, a participant, a project member, a spectator, commissioner, or in some other way. As with most other areas of the site however, this is flexible if someone approaches us with a good idea.

    Features
    Features are commissioned articles, which are longer and more in-depth than Reflections. The author does not have to have a personal involvement to the project. Anyone can suggest themselves as a Feature writer (we’re currently looking for someone to write a Feature about the history of public art planning in Seattle, for instance). As with other areas, if I don’t get enough contributions from readers, I do also approach people. ‘Commissioned’ in this sense means ‘paid’ and also ‘working to a brief’. Because we have limited funds, we can only support two features per Season. The upcoming season is on Planning and will run during Winter 2010 / Spring 2011.

    GSA Bias.
    I appreciate your comments and have taken this view on board. I would like to encourage any and all individuals reading this who do not identify themselves as being connected to Glasgow School of Art to contribute articles to the site. We love to hear from you.

    Ten Great Projects.
    This is a great list – thanks for your time, T. We’d love to receive an Reflection piece about these projects, so if you’d like to write one please get in touch. Alternatively, if there’s a writer you’d like me to approach on your behalf, please let me know. Perhaps if you’d like to email me, we can discuss the article in more depth. I’d also like to invite other readers to contribute other thoughts or examples to the list.
    Some of the artists mentioned have already been covered on PAR+RS – not that this means that we can’t look at them again in more detail, and it would be great to focus on the projects you’ve mentioned specifically. For interest I’m putting some links below.

    Matt Baker As lead artist for Inverness Old Town Art, Matt was also contributing to the IOTA Blog.
    Chris Fremantle – Places of Origin
    GANGHUT
    Sans Facon

    Sundogs’ brilliant Yarnbombing was mentioned all too briefly in our coverage of the events surrounding IOTA’s Reimagining the Centre event last year, where PAR+RS sponsored keynote speaker Neville Gabie, and of course they also featured in IOTA’s blog (see above). Ruth MacDougall also gave a brilliant presentation at the IOTA event, so we’d love to catch up with her again.

    Examples of Bad Projects.
    Thanks also for replying to my invitation in the blog post above to suggest examples of bad public art. In order to make this into an article for Reflections, it would be useful if you could take perhaps one or two of these examples and explain how you feel that they’ve failed. It was also be ideal to have images to accompany.
    Editorially I’d like to keep this article separate from the Ten Best / Ten Great Projects piece. I don’t think that there have to be ten examples, and I’d be particularly interested to hear from readers (including yourself, T) who can provide insight into projects they’ve actually been involved in – again, whether that involvement is as a community participant, an artist, organiser, planner or other. Again, please email me your work, ideally with images, we can talk about how to put the article together.

    I’d like to finish with the usual reminder to everyone reading – please please please send us your articles and images, we love to receive them and the website wouldn’t exist without them. Send all articles to the usual email address in word format, and any images as JPGs. You should hold the copyright to any images you contribute (we’ll send you a form to fill in just to confirm).

    I hope this helps,
    R.

    Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.

  4. 16 Nov 2010

    T Aikenhead

    Dear Ruth Barker – in response to your generous invitation (in the comments under Sarah Lowndes ‘Features’ article) I would offer the following 2 lists – 10 of the ‘best’ and 10 of the ‘worst’ recent public art projects in Scotland. I accept, that as an enthusiastic amateur, I risk ridicule from your better connected readers. I do not make any claim that these are THE best or THE worst (in some cases I suspect that there is good cause for some entries to swap between lists) – no, rather what I had in mind was to suggest two lists that would be illuminating to examine further and might throw some light on the issues and identity of a more inclusive public art scene than might have been proposed for discussion in recent weeks.

    ‘Best’ (in no particular order)

    Dalziel and Scullion – More Than Us (conference)

    Ruth MacDougall – Elephant Test

    Stephen Healy – Mongrel

    Matt Baker – Shinglehook

    Chris Freemantle (curator) – Places of Origin

    Sundogs – Yarnbomb

    Nicky Bird – Beneath the Surface/Hidden Place

    Sans facon (Lead Artist) – Peterhead Public Realm Strategy

    Jane Kelly – Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital

    Ganghut – Lumsden Residency

    ‘Worst’ (in no particular order)

    Toby Paterson – Poised Array

    Gerald Laing – Highland Clearances Memorial

    Andy Goldsworthy – Striding Arches

    Kenny Hunter – Citizen Firefighter

    Jaqueline Donachie – Disc (Darnley)

    Heisenberg – The Gatekeeper

    Douglas Gordon – Empire

    Christine Borland – To be Set and Sown in the Garden

    Graham Fagen – Where the Heart Is

    Andy Scott – Heavy Horse

    Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.

Please login to leave comments.