Meeting Minutes 15.10.08

Meeting 15.10.08
Apologies: Kris sent apologies; she will be a little late
All other group members present.

Update/Review of where we are up to:
Last Friday’s meeting with Simon and Trish was positive but not very directive.
Interesting difference in their take on the ‘outcome’ of the project: public intervention, satellites? (Simon)/ internal event (Trish).
Discussion over the conflicting ways of working – circumlocutionary process; our ‘architectural thinking’ causing us to want to focus on an end point rather than fluid evolving process as the main body of work.
Video and books of ideas well received.

Outcome:
Need to define and take control of the direction for the next 3/6 weeks.
Define Plan of action for each week.
Divorce Friday’s meetings from the ‘working week’. Friday sessions to be used to inform work, but not necessarily be a ‘eureka’ moment each week to direct us.
Julie expressed that 'only a few ways it can go' - an event of some sort todemonstrate our findings in the 6 week project.
Tori highlighted the fact that, referring back to the brief sheet as provided bythe clients, in fact we have answered a lot of the questions raised initiallyby the client with respect to the areas they would like our work to explore.We need to throw ourselves into the participation element of what we areexploring. These could be meetings with: dancers, schools, individuals, local groups, andinterventions at bus stops which will all feed into final event.
Julie and Tilly reported back on their investigations into whether a bus-stopgraveyard exists: there is one - for the whole of south yorkshire!
There is to be a huge contract to renew bus stops across the region in 2-3weeks. We can have as many as we like and they can be delivered to wherever wewant them. Question of cost was raised - to be dealt with as and when delivery timeis closer. Julie is in discussion with the man concerned to see if negotiation can bring us even just one bus stop in the interim.Obtaining a bus stop (or several) might become part of a longer term strategyfor the project.
Where does this take us?This provides a focal point for us in the project; Gives us context.It could provide a theme for discovery of info - eg. if we can find out which busstops are to be removed next and when, perhaps, like the street piano, we could collectmemories of events at bus stops, ask questions about where people think their bus stop will go,what will happen to it etc.Tilly suggested that her brother may be able to provide some sort of contraption to mobilise the bus stop, possibly some sort of trailer, so we can move a bus stop around if that is appropriate.The Bus stop as a focal point:
Possibility of visiting the bus stop graveyard was suggested.The bus stop ‘graveyard’ is a hugely emotive situation - accumulation of journeys, memories etc. Suggestions of past journeys, memory, collected memory - use to inform 'product'?Interventions: Leave a mark on a bus stop - in a specific location?Setting up a stage for events - a model that we could apply anywhere?Discussion as to mobility of bus stop. Jonny raised the point that Bus stops are stationary; it is the people who move - the audiences come and go. Does the bus stop need to move around?Intervention in a bus stop.
Bus stop as a decontextualised object? Is its meaning inherent in its structure?
Discussions re impact of a new bus stop - influence on the community?
These participatory, emotive events can be used to feed into our end point.
Getting a bus stop will give us a sense of ownership of the project and interventions.

Where do we go from here?
Aim is to obtain a bus stop to start implementing our own interventions.
We decided to stick with this concept as a focal point to guide us through the project.
Look into the national network – long term strategy; outreach
Jen highlighted that our elemental experiments/tests can feed back into the long term strategy.
Helen highlighted that whatever council reactions are to our interventions will be positive research, even if seemingly a negative response.
The decision was made to brainstorm with people around a series of subjects:
· Journeys
· Dancing
· Installations

It was decided the best way to approach this is was to sub-divide the group into 3, taking 1 bus stop per day, over a series of days. ‘Giving to receive’ - providing a souvenir at each ‘test’ event. It is expected, however that there will be a degree of overlap between the groups’ activities.
Groups to investigate:
· sharrow community groups – local groups: art groups, school, dads’ group, asylum seekers (broader journeys)
· Dance groups – professionals and lay people – about journeys, movement and architecture
· Individuals – interventions at bus stops

Sub groups (drawn out of a hat):
DANCE GROUPS
BUS STOP INTERVENTIONS
LOCAL COMMUNITY GROUPS
Tori
Kris
Jen
Hoi Sun
Jonny
Pól
Julie
Hayley
Av

Tilly
Helen

Blog Privacy:
Discussions re our options post conversations/emails with Carolyn and Russell
Generally the fact that concerns have been raised, impacting the way we work and progress is a positive thing to work through and deal with. In simple terms it is the client vs the school and a compromise must be made.
2 blogs, one public and one private, was generally agreed to be a huge amount of work and difficult to ascertain then what detail should go on which blog as the process is so integral to the outcome of this live project.
Leaving the blog with restricted access was agreed to be detrimental to the success of the blog, which is in itself an integral part of the live project. Already feedback has been received from people outside the group who have questioned why they cannot access the blog.
Copyrighting the blog was discussed, but not seen to be a viable solution that the clients would be satisfied with.

So – a solution?
This leaves us with the question of confidentiality – which needs to be discussed further with the clients. However, the situation as we see it can be summarised thus:
We understand that the clients were made aware of the purpose of the live project, as a collaborative piece of work, and our requirements from that educationally before undertaking involvement.
Our approach to the public/private divide, rather than through the censorship of intellectual property, would be to propose excluding any information with regard to funding on the blog. The project therefore, as it exists in the public domain would appear purely educational. Anything with respect to a long term funding strategy could either be privacy protected on the blog, or not posted. The project would not be publicly ‘advertised’ therefore as something warranting funding merit.
Discussion also turned to include the fact that the idea of intervening with bus stops and dancing in public is not an original idea in itself – we are drawing on the previous work of other individuals and groups – and thus ‘privatising’ our work seemed inappropriate.
Privatising the blog seems in direct conflict also with the open engagement nature of the project, and we would highlight the collaborative context in which the project is set.
Discussion led to the proposal of a ‘statement’ to email about this – seen as less confrontational , also set out in writing, and will avoid the possibility of losing a lot of time discussing this at the meeting on Friday.

To Do/Further Ideas:
Provide mobile music for interventions – Tori to provide cd player
Record salsa lesson ( music and vocals) – play in bus stop
Reflections from those who attended salsa class on Tuesday
All welcome at Salsa at the Forum next Tuesday – from 7.30pm onwards, £3
Julie volunteered to look into short term funding – approach Julia Udal at SCF.
[Brief discussion about funding: our services worth £15000 on funding proposal – something to be aware of. Keep receipts for any expenditure for materials etc for hopeful future reimbursement]
Jen suggested collecting ‘found’ objects – freecycle, gum tree. This could direct our approach to installations.
All: Investigate local scrap yards/gumtee/freecycle for stuff we can use for live project.
Client meeting Friday – keep open, see what the dancers bring to the meeting and their reactions to our ideas- Funding – Julie is happy to carry on investigating funding options from shine Sharrow- Everyone to sort themselves out within the smaller groups.
Last 30 minutes of meeting 15th October
Av/Hayley/Julie/Hoi Sun/Kris/Julie/Helen
Hayley: Identity of live project?
Julie: At the 10/10 meeting it was decided to hold off from making a strong identity for ourselves until we have a definitive path and ideas/events in the making.
Discussion:
The need for perhaps a more subtle identity to add to events, esp. the more gorilla installations in bus stops. A ‘tag’ of some kind to just tie everything together?
This means that when it comes to advertising the final gallery presentation/satellite galleries we can use an image which has (hopefully!) filtered into the Sharrow conciousness.
This is agreed to be a good idea.
Julie: There is already a sort-of image coming through from the work already done, the #02Arch that can be seen on the blog and was also included in the emails to Trish’s contacts and was on the postcards. This could easily be printed onto stickers or made into a stencil….
Julie and Av: Will investigate non-permanent ways of ‘tagging’ installations – easily-removable adhesive/water-soluble paint/something as simple as post-its?
Helen: Do we need some sort of identity for ourselves?
Discussion:
Agreed that we don’t need anything as obvious as t-shirts. How about something around wrists? Decided to create bracelets with our ‘identity tag’ on them. They will provide us with something (in addition to postcards) that we can swap with people in return for answering questions/participating in our installations and events.
Helen/Hayley: Will investigate ways of producing these for little/no money. Colours/materials/ways of transferring image etc.
All: Decided that people who went to Salsa yesterday should add their thoughts on the matter to the blog.
Dance participatory group: Look into break dancing/street dancing tomorrow. Loxley 4pm-6pm.
Av: Ideas for group participatory events?
Discussion:
Asking groups about journeys they’ve had on public transport, people they’ve met. Asking how people move on buses, maybe getting them to do some spontaneous dance?! Getting kids to build their own bus shelters out of card? Brainstorming about how they would like to improve the normal bus shelter if they could do anything? Taking them outside to visit the Sharrow shelters? Most important, it needs to be really interactive. Collecting research through as many formats as possible, – photo diaries, video, reflective journals, questionnaires etc.
Note: Anyone who needs local people/group contacts please check the stakeholder beast that is pinned in studio, or if in doubt contact Julie.