Well i've been very very busy.

I've finished the group website today, its at www.artistsontherun.co.uk

yet again it was difficult to chase people up for content and thus the website is running 3 days late (was supposed to be done on sunday)

im aware that alot of people are super super busy, so am i, but i still manage to hit deadlines for work, because if you don't its just making more trouble for yourself eh?

other than that i have to finish my own website off, which i've designed and done all the images for, bar some of the content images, but i need to scan stuff from my installation in uni that is still up so i'll have to wait till tommorow to do that.

i have to arrange my image in my frame, which i know what its gonna be i just need to get it looking good in there.

i have to sort out my webcast next week and make sure its working, that'll be hard. i also have to write a disclaimer/release form for my guests (which i have the template for so thats okay) and i have to mock up an appointments system, allocating for my sleep time and lunch and dinner.

I have to organise my sketch books and finish off some writing.

i have to get my 4 minute video and showreel done for this friday, which i am going to be doing tommorow afternoon and evening and friday morning. so that should be okay.

then late next week when im up to date with my blog (thats this your reading!) i have to get it printed and bound for my independant study, because i believe it'll get read more and better than it would just on the web, people find reading stuff off a computer screen difficult...i find it eaiser!

tommorow i have to get alot of stuff printed up and i have to take down my installation. i'll be in uni at 9.30 me thinks drop off my stuff to get printed and then take down my installation. we're then going to make a large collage of all our work (posters and stuff) tommorow, hopefully that'll only take an hour or so. then on to editing!

So i've had a few responses from my current installation "interviews with prostitutes and other recordings from Amsterdam" and been fairly positive, my peers at uni seem to enjoy it, they like the audio recordings and the drawings, and many seem really shocked/interested in what i got up to, i guess because its fairly umm unusual activity, especially since i went with my parents and they were involved in the way that i would talk to them about what i was oing to do that day and why.

and then i listened to a critque that worried me, first it was that my presentation was shoddy, yes i believe it was i wanted very much to have a big arm chair (preferably one like in the hotel at amsterdam) and some really nice furniture, but alas im 1000+ in debt to the bank through living and cannot, even though i desperatly wanted to, afford a nice set up....its true i didn't think massivly hard about how i would set it up. I wanted it in the foyer because the space is regularly walked through and people would (hopefully) stop and see. and i wanted it to be comfortable, as there was 6+ hours of recordings and books, i wanted a very..."homey" look because i really didn't think putting it on plinths and tables would be appropriate, its a piece about life and disscussion and i didn't want the dictated pleasentarys of "art" to get in the way of people exploring the work. I chose the most appropriate pieces of furniture that i could aquire, i wanted the pornography and more seedy items to be hidden, but not restricted acess to, so i put them in a cupboard.
I did have a terrible time with how i should display the pictures on the wall...i very almost didn't put the pictures on the wall...and was going to just leave them in a pile to be flicked through.

Presentation has always been my downfall...lately anyway, before it was drive and content with a good presentation, now its the opposite, i seem to be so busy with the issues and the research that the presentation lacks or perhaps doesn't really matter so much....but then again i am working in visual arts!....though i do feel like i would be better suited right now to sociology or politics.

but the shoddy presentation comment wasn't the thing that bothered me so much, it was the fact that the most engaging part of the piece for them was when i talked to my mother and father about what i was going to do that day and ethics of prostitution.

I do not want my relationship with my parents to become the most interesting part of my work, i want the issues that are talked about to be the most interesting part, the most enaging part, the curiosity and the asking of questions and answering of questions on both parts and the working out of feelings and posistions on the issues. yes my work is often conversational, between audience and performer, and i form that relationship to talk honestly about what we both feel about an issue that i am tackling.
it seems people were astonished with the fact that my parents knew i was engaging in these illicit activies, and then many people seemed to reflect on their own relationship with their parents back to me.

Sex still has this stigma, it shocks people that i openly discuss it and experience things which are not considered 'proper' or at least not to be openly conversational about details.
In reality when the few people approached me i explained that many of the activities i participated in were not explicit in the least, they were very orchestrated and lacked the human reality, at times these more human instants creeped through in the peoples actions, but then it again was just their job.

i have a fantastic relationship with my parents, but only in regards to my artwork, personal details of life and ups and downs are not as developed as other peoples relationships with their parents, i have very liberal and free thinking parents in the terms of rights and issues, personal problems, however are often glossed over or ignored until the point of breaking.
So that is why they are openly involved with my 'art-sexual' because it has none of the feelings connected to it.

But yes this worried me that the fact that i was disscusing these issues with my parents was more interesting than the fact that i was discussing the issues. i would have talked about the issues to anyone and everyone, regardless of relation.

On the other hand i realised that there may be something in my relationship with my parents, i understand its interesting, especially within the context of sex.
I have considered doing alot of work with my parents on the subject of sex, but i believe they would not appreciate extensive involement and neither would i, my art is not about the relationship's as such, perhaps more about the fact that i form relationships in order to talk about the subject in relative comfort. in that way, everyone is my parents.

I can tell that my lifes work will never be done, and the few people who are waiting on copies of my book (yes, my BOOK!) will probably be waiting anything up to 5 years + and by then i'll have alot more research too....it never ends! in a likeable way though...i wouldn't want it to end...what would i do? what crusade would i go on then?

dear me.

I'm a little bit scared that having done no previous work with webcams that my piece for degree show will flop....i've researched alot but not actual 'piece'.... maybe i should broadcast a night of my life for a test.

my degree show piece has a title now too "12 days of performance, interaction and information gathering"

im not sure whether to tack "via webcam" on the end...its not really the most important part of the piece, the talkinga nd performing is the most important bit...


in other personal news i have to have a blood test on friday because i have a strange rash on my belly.
i can hear the results now,

"miss aplin? you have 'insert rare tropical disease here' its terribly contagious and also has the tendancy to make sufferers terrible at making art, oh your degree show is tommorow? oh dear..."

just my luck.

anyway other than that i think im all updated...i've ran out of space on my picture posts so can't post any until i start deleting stuff....

see now im just rambling....