Welcome

Welcome to 'Four Legs BetterThan Two'

'Four Legs' is a community arts project based on the experiences of dog walking.

Everyone is invited to participate.


This project is about how dogs shape our lives. Based on the stories, memories, joys and benefits of dog walking 'Four Legs' looks at how our dogs influence the ways in which we experience and interact with the world.

'Four Legs' also reflects on the nature of the informal community we become part of as dog owners and how this community produces a sense of belonging that enhances our lives.

All dog owners are invited to participate in the project. There are many possible levels of participation from a simple comment on the discussion boards at popular dog parks to shared walks.

Contributions to this blog site are most welcome. These could be in the form of photographs, short stories or video of your favourite walks. As the project develops this site will gather dog stories from all over Dunedin, to create a network of 'who's who' in the most popular dog areas.

Out of the project will come several different events. The most important entitled 'Four Legs Better Than Two' is the heart of the project. The experiences of dog walking will be gathered in the most inventive ways. Including the use of 'dog cam', shared walks and audio recordings this will be a light hearted and undemanding process. From these records will come the stories of dog walking and the community that we become part of through their influence. To participate in this stage please email me at sean.curham@otago.ac.nz.

The final event will be an informal showing of these stories and records - with plenty of food and drink - to which everyone is invited.

The other projects that from part of 'Four Legs Better Than Two' include an installation at the University called 'Big Dog', a sound work called 'Growly Dog', ongoing discussions on the dog park boards, 'Commune' a project with the post graduate students of the dance programme at the University of Otago , 'Good dog, bad man' a white board cartoon that is contributed to by passers by and a very light hearted project called 'Dog Park Karaoke'.

'Dog Park Karaoke' - is being created in response to the informal nature of the dog community. This event gathers its material through a process of chance encounters reflecting the informal, mobile nature of dog community interactions. We never know who we will meet. Will it be the 'regulars' out walking their dogs or will their be unknown 'newbies' on our patch? There are a number of different recording devices 'floating around' in the dog community - being handed on from person to person. These include postcards, a dog phone, and a camera. By recording your dogs information via these devices you will become part of the project building a profile of your dog.

'Dog Park Karaoke' will then be 'performed' in local parks where owners will trigger this information and a giant image of their dog. Of course more food and drink is required.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Final report - January 2009

Caroline Plummer Fellowship Report

Submitted by: Sean Curham
Project title: Four Legs Better Than Two
Dates: 1 Feb 2009 – 1 August 2009

“Four Legs Better Than Two” – a dance in the community project based on the experiences of dog walking. This report covers three areas – the original project aims, the actual event (what really happened) and the future.

Aims:
The project aimed to:
create an inclusive event based on participation
to contribute to the body of research dealing with notions of dance and of community
to bring an open, creative and unrestrained attitude to the project

Key proposals:
That dance is an embodied investigation of sensation undertaken through movement. Suggested is the idea that the potential of dance lies in its positioning adjacent to or outside of language – that it functions at a pre-cognitive sensory level and as such is productive – producing new events and/or experience.
That it is at this level of sensation or the production of sensation that creativity emerges both critically and practically.
That the experiences of dog walking not only embody these ideas but can bring such questions to the fore making them accessible and tangible for the broader community.
As a community, dog walkers generate unique characteristics that offer potential for research into the relationship between dance and community or affect/sensation and the experienced world.

Project detail.
The project was made up of one key event - “Four Legs Better Than Two” and many side projects, including “Good dog, bad man”, “The Longest Tail”, “Dog Park Karaoke” and “Commune/Everest”.
The primary strategy employed to realize this project was to participate in the existing activities of the dog walking community and through this engage with the community to realize a creative event.

Four Legs Better Than Two – Project detail
“Four Legs” was designed to enable participation at many levels – from a 'one off' contribution to a more sustained involvement. This dissemination strategy aimed to introduce the core ideas of the project to the wider dog walking community – and to start a broad process of reflection/participation as to what dog walking offers socially, creatively and critically.
This design can be thought of as tiers of access or participation points.

1.Discussion Boards. At the most accessible level discussion boards were placed in five key parks, Forbury Cnr, Green Island, Wakari, Forrester and Rotary Parks. These provided a question and answer forum and a community discussion point. The boards also enable the wider community to stay informed as to the events and developments of the project.
2.Dog diary/blog. A very informal blog with information on the project. Provided links and sites to which dog owners could contribute. As part of this a 'dog diary' was created – a photo diary of the dogs encountered on daily walks. This provided another point of interest for owners and drew them to the site/project.
3.'One off' interviews. During the daily rounds of dog walking I invited owners to participate in a 'one off', on the spot interview to be included in the project. These were extremely successful with over 60 interviews being recorded.
4.Schools and existing dog owner social groups. The project was also designed as an intergenerational event. Two local schools, Logan Park and Queens High were approached to participate. The discussion and development of ideas continued with the support of teachers Kristan Mouat and Diana Strang. Unfortunately as school demands grew the students had to let go of the project. However what had been in development was a series of 'dog cam' videos made with a camera fitted to a specially designed dog vest giving a 'dogs eye view' of the world. This viewpoint explored by these creative youth offered real potential. In addition to this several events with local dog owners' clubs were participated in, including outings with the Dunedin Beagle Club, the Dunedin Whippet Group, the Otago Canine Training Club and the NZ Kennel Club.
5.Core group. A group of ten dog owners' became involved in the project and formed the core group of the “Four Legs” event. This group participated in a series of shared walks and then went on to engage creatively with the project experimenting and producing personal responses to the project, community and their experiences of dog walking. In collaboration with each participant I endeavoured to develop a 'mini' project – a small and relatively constrained creative response to the bigger work. This step aimed to highlight the creativity embedded in daily activities such as dog walking, and to raise questions as to what these seemingly mundane and insignificant routines offer, as situations that can potentially inform the way in which we experience the world. This strand of thinking looks to the idea that the creativity that resides in how we live our lives – what we 'do' is often overlooked for the more 'skilled' or valued creativity of producing things/artifacts. Suggested here is that the process of community making is an inherently creative activity – both in a critical sense and in practice. Many ideas emerged in the process of creating these 'mini' works – and a significant number were realized – including a three hour 'stream of consciousness' tour around the dog walking areas of St Kilda – created as a sound recording; a photo essay that referenced the structure of the movie 'Smoke', three forty minute video works by Dee Sorrel dealing with different aspects of her local dog walking group – including an entire work dealing with the group of teenagers who were walking the family dog. The teenagers eventually befriended the older dog owners – and effectively joined the group/community.
6.Final showing. “Four Legs” culminated in a showing and social event for all the community – and specifically for those who had contributed to this and any of the other side projects.

Good dog, bad man
Along with “Commune” and “Dog Park Karaoke”, “Good dog, bad man” was a minor project staged concurrently with the larger “Four Legs” event. Undertaken on campus “Good dog” sought to include staff and students in what was otherwise a community based project – and in the process create a link between these two groups – the University and the 'other' Dunedin.
The 'white board' idea was translated into the University context – whereby a large board (with pens) was placed in a public space – and passersby were encouraged to write or draw in a way that contributed to or commented on the story of the 'Good dog, bad man.'
The project looked to ideas of creativity and performance or action in public.
This was a very popular event – each day or so the board was cleaned and the story restarted with a new picture or phrase.

Dog Park Karaoke
Like “Good dog'” this event was originally designed to create an access point to the larger project for staff and students on campus. Being explored were ideas of performance, creativity, and the role of technology. These concerns grew out of the “Four Legs” work. It was hoped that a different audience would produce new and alternative responses that would further inform the larger project.

“Dog Park Karaoke” presented a number of technical difficulties; however a working draft was ultimately presented at the final 'Four Legs' showing.


The work was designed as follows:
“Dog Park Karaoke” is a game.
Recordings of owners and dogs had been made throughout the bigger project creating images in preparation for the work.
On a monitor an owner is presented with an image of their dog.
By selecting the image a message appears on large screen in front of them – 'call your dog' is the instruction – delivered both as text and as a soundtrack.
The owner is then required to call their dog in the manner they would normally – once a certain intensity/pitch is reached a giant projected image appears of their dog running and growling.
The running/noisy dog is overwhelming large and 'animal' in its presence.
This event again aimed at getting at ideas of performance/action in public, scale, intensity and the visceral sensuality of a dogs run/growl/bark.

The Longest Tail
In the process of developing unique 'mini works' with the key participants of “Four Legs” another side project was created in the form of a 'Chinese whispers' camera. A video camera was passed around anonymously within the dog community – those who received the camera were asked to record a short interview reflecting on their dog walking experiences and the community – eventually returning the camera on a set date.
The initial project was started in Brighton. The camera then traveled across Otago – to Wanaka and back complete with twelve interviews. Subsequent projects were staged in Port Chalmers and Portobello. These later projects also involved still images whereby a dog walker would take one photo and pass the camera on.
This approach was employed to create some distance between myself and the community – in the hope that new or unsolicited ideas/perspectives would present.

Commune/Everest
This event sought to translate the experiments of the larger “Four Legs” project into a theatrical or conventional art making context to again engage a new audience and more specifically enable dance studies staff and students to participate.
Reflecting the inclusive approach of the community events 'Commune' invited staff and students to work together and in the process develop an informal collaborative environment that enabled all to contribute as equals.
The project began by looking at questions to do with materiality, performance, representation and the communal. These are concerns that are embedded in the bigger “Four Legs” work – and provided the means to begin a discussion being familiar terms for dance/theatre practitioners.

Following a number of meetings a project event was defined.
Proposed was a work that referenced the performance happenings of the 60s and 70s. “Commune” would be presented as a theatrical mountaineering trip – whereby a group of performer/collaborators would attempt to climb a 5m cardboard mountain complete with mountaineering equipment and summit teams. During the two day event all performers would live on site, cooking, eating and sleeping either on the mountain whilst climbing or at 'base camp' – in real tents pitched around the set. The event was to be performed in the Otago Canine Training Clubs' premises at Forrester Park – and although inside, the buildings large double doors would be left open to funnel the wind and rain onto the set.
Underpinning this work is an ongoing investigation into the differences and similarities in creative potential that exist in each setting, that is the community setting or normal environment vs. the more particular experiments undertaken in an art/theatre/research contexts.
Unfortunately this event was unable to be realized due to financial constraints; however it is being reconsidered for an upcoming show in collaboration with the Blue Oyster Gallery for 2010.


Community, art, creativity.
Central to this project sits the idea that the normal events of daily life (in this case dog walking) are creative. Here 'creativity' refers not only to the familiar use of the term – creativity as invention, as play or even inspiration (manifest as objects/performance/writing or ideas) – but refers also to 'creative potential' in a philosophical sense. This is creativity linked to an argument examining the way in which the world appears or is understood.
Creativity in this sense deals with how the 'real' world emerges – and with this the development of an argument or consistency of thought that can present an understanding of this emergence. From this then comes an 'ontology' largely as an alternative to a Cartesian or Kantian approach that can accommodate or support change without a predetermined outcome.
The particular strand of thought engaged here follows Deleuze through the work of Massumi, Colebrook, O'Sullivan, Grosz and Parr to name a few.
This opportunity enabled the testing of the idea that the most interesting and constructive context for art is not the studio or gallery but in the way in which daily life is experienced.
There are many similarities between the 'constructed' art work/context and the norms of daily life – however experience in the community has freedoms that are unavailable to the conventional artist. In the routines of daily life there is no 'beginning', no deliberation about where to start or what to investigate – no formation of a starting idea or concept around which to develop thought or objects/performance, no agenda – (or the agenda is generated from broader forces – social, cultural and capital) – that there is no 'aesthetic' – and no real content – other than the fulfilling of daily needs. Events are experienced but not recreated or re-presented. This type of experience is very different to a strategic investigation of a hunch or concept. I am suggesting that such experience carries unacknowledged potential in its direct connection to forces inaccessible through a calculated experiment.

The routines of daily living are unpredictable and volatile in a way that art endeavours to be yet can never achieve due to the style with which it is approached. A thoughtful, informed, well researched and referenced project can never approach the disruptive potential found in the haphazard events of daily routines, habits and seemingly mundane tasks of the day.
Continuing this line of investigation it is proposed that daily routines bring contact with events that confront the norms of experience. I am suggesting that the unpredictable occurrences, both minor and more significant, that arrive during the course of routine activities work to unsettle normal experience and in so doing present the 'creative potential' that can alter the way in which the world is experienced and understood. Implied here is that the 'real' world encapsulates a field of potential to which we are connected.
This potential presents as new occurrences and events – perceptions and sensations that offer an 'edge' to normal experience – fleetingly so, before they are acknowledged and codified by our rational needs. In the case of dog walkers these 'new events' perhaps arise as surprises, the unanticipated discoveries and interventions that occur during a walk – from a stumble to the surprise of a cat, an accident, a dog encounter, or weather event.
The project was designed to enable this investigation of creativity to be extended. The key elements were:
Participation: – that creativity is something that is experienced first hand ie in the “doing” – in contrast to viewing an object or artwork that somehow re-presents experience or ideas
Sensation: – that creativity is linked to sensation
Movement: – that new events and sensations are continuously being produced and that this happens through movement.
Singularity: - that experience and or events are singular, being discrete, unrepeatable and constantly renewing.
Dogs: – being instinctive and spontaneous animals they worked to exaggerate how daily routines are constantly altered and interrupted by new and unpredictable events.
Community: – that the making of community and in particular unstable, transient communities like 'dog walkers' reflect the emergence of creative forces that can offer a renewed perception of the world.
Dogs and dance: - this project sought to significantly extend how dance is thought and in the process introduce an extended concept of movement – both involving the human subject and movement in a minor sense – for example how perception involves movement via the senses, natural forces and even matter.
In essence this project explored the idea that dog walking presents new experiences – and that due to the participation of the walker – the fact that the walker is generating or encountering these new events through being active, a new and creative perception is encountered. The suggestion is that this unrestrained experiencing brings forward potential that can alter the way in which community, creativity and art can be further explored.


The future.
“Four Legs” represents a major shift of focus from making for theatres and galleries to seriously considering the potential for work based in the community. Since completing “Four Legs” I have finished another community situated work, “One” a collaboration with the Auckland Old Folks Association (Auckland's original provider of support services for the older person) as part of the Heritage Festival. The work was in four parts and incorporated the oral histories of the last eight members of the Association. Other events included a video wall – a season of performance works and collaboration with thirty eight local businesses. The success of this event and the compounding of ideas from “Four Legs” has further affirmed my interest in community based work.
I'm now planning a number of future events – which includes participating in the 'Living Room Project' with Auckland City, a reworking of 'Commune' for the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin a project with Selwyn Village (a community for the older person), another with the community of an entire street in West Auckland, a dog park work in Pt Chevalier and the development of 'Sensational' a work situated both in the community and theatres for 2011.


Challenges, uncertainties and shortcomings.
“Four Legs” was a challenging project. Although the project was well received by the broader community and key participants I was left with doubts as to how effectively I managed these challenges. A number of unresolved questions and uncertainties in the design and delivery of the project became apparent.
The main concern that arose was the relationship between art and research – and the questions arising from practice based research, specifically art practice as research. (For the purposes of this project dance has been treated as an art from). This concern presented most clearly when considering methodology. Here methodology describes how the delivery of a project has been organized to produce a repeatable and accountable event. Built into methodology are the means by which a projects success can be measured. On the one hand I was aware of the need for accountability – to employ an approach that acknowledged the requirements of the University and academic norms whilst on the other hand the need to allow the potential that art practice can offer via the singular experiences of movement and sensation.
Again the essence of this project was in the participation – in the 'doing'. Being explored was the idea that it is in the participatory moment that creativity emerges, as singular, unique events or experiences. Essential to this is the experiencing of this flow – not the reporting or attempt to define, describe or understand. Such steps towards describing or communicating experience only work to generalize and in the process remove the singular condition of the original finding, and perhaps ultimately causing the experience to be lost. So the challenge becomes how to design a project for which a defining characteristic is that the events and experiences of the work are not translated into language.
During the 'Commune' project meetings, the question of methodology again became an issue. In response it was suggested that the project did have a structure and a process of evolution that grew with the work – identifying and responding to the problems at hand. Does this then present a methodology – albeit one that is unique (and unrepeatable) – arising in response to a particular project?
This was an ambitious project as it aimed to collaborate with the community on a series of experimental investigations. Justifying this approach was the idea that preexisting within the community there is an inherent intelligence, vitality and inquisitiveness that readily engages with the most challenging questions. The project sought to acknowledge these resources and work with the community on these experiments – looking to challenge the familiar. At this point the guarantees or safety net of established thinking are diminished as more uncertainties and contradictions emerge alongside the potential to reveal something new and the previously unconsidered. No attempt was made to generalize or down play the experimental nature of the project.
In spite of the generous and insightful contributions of the projects contributors I was left feeling uncertain as to how they found this approach – and whether or not participants felt adequately informed or equipped to contribute to the project.
Another concern I had related to the body of work predating this event and how collaborators would cope coming to the project 'cold' with no prior knowledge or experience of past works. As I see my work as a continuum, current issues and questions carry over from one event to the next – which means that each new event picks up where the last one left off – and any new collaborator is required to enter the project at the point at which they find it – at a certain level of development, which can be demanding.
Throughout the work I again felt uncertain as to how effective this approach was.
For this work all the normal 'signposts' for a community project were specifically set aside. The project didn't celebrate a particular community or attempt to affirm the status of a minority group – in contrast a thriving and wholly independent group was engaged with – the 'dog walkers' - as a means to question notions of both community and dance.
These strategies focused the project in a particular way – making it primarily about participation – for and by the group with which it was engaged. This approach has significantly contributed to my ongoing research - and will continue to be of benefit. I can only hope that the experience of the project and future incarnations will have a constructive influence for those who encountered the work.


Further reading.
Colebrook, C. (2002) Understanding Deleuze, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Grosz, E. (2005) Time Travels: Feminism, Nature, Power, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Lepecki, A. (2006) Exhausting Dance, London: Routledge.
Lorraine, T. (1999) Irigaray and Deleuze: Experiments in Visceral Philosophy, New York: Cornell University Press
Massumi, B. (2002) Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation, Durham: Duke University Press.
O'Sullivan, S. (2006) Art Encounters Deleuze and Guttari. Thought Beyond Representation, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Parr, A. (2005) The Deleuze Dictionary, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Last Post

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the 'Four Legs' project. It turned out to be an ambitious event - as I tried to cover a lot of territory in a short time. This extended from the dog community to dance and an investigation into what ideas to do with movement, sensation and the body can offer. And then a look at community - with particular attention to the spatial characteristics of the dog community - and what this may offer in terms of how we come to know and experience the world.

Underlying all this is an interest in creative potential - creativity in a critical sense - and how the shift from representing ideas - through performance or choreography to participation/activities(such as dog walking) can enable a shift in understanding. In part I approached the project as an art making challenge - where the focus is on participation and in this case the community that results as an alternative to the making of objects/artifacts/choreography. I consciusly avoided 'making a dance' that would somehow endeavour to improve lives or capture an experience.

The next step will be a report to the NZ Recreation Council in November. Its interesting how they are willing to consider the positive influence of dogs.

Sincere apologies to all those who received an invite to the final show with incorrect details - a correct one did go out - but sadly not to everyone.

And yes I have been a very random blogger - having discovered that to take it seriously is a job in itself - and I am much more interested in getting out and about.

Thank you to the Caroline Plummer Memorial Foundation for the generous support.

More than ever I see the influence of dogs as positive on the lives of the individual owners, their immediate communities and the broader community.

Thank you.

Sean Curham

Friday, July 3, 2009

The heart of the project - July 4

I recently met an old dog walking acquaintance - the owner of two full sized Poodles 'Fergus' - now on the glucosamine and 'Charlie' - maybe 3 years old - and completely mad. I only know the dogs names. She asked me what Id been doing? I told her about the "Four Legs"project.

She replied.

"Its the dogs that give me my strongest feeling of community. Its because of them that I walk around in my neighbourhood - if didn't have these two I wouldn't get to meet these people. Just the other day one of my elderly neighbours who I always stop and chat with mistook me for a bird and threw some bread at me. Its our version of the kind of communities you see in Europe or the Pacific- where everyone is out on the street - or on their front step keeping in touch - the dogs give me this sense of involvement - and there's no boundary - the dogs sense of prejudice is not the same as ours - I get to meet all sorts of people I would never meet in any other situation."

The conversation went on like this - I'm not making it up. This was in Auckland - I was dropping Tippy back so that my partner could have the dog back in her life too.

She then said - "but here we feel like such criminals - the 'dog catcher' lurks up there ready to fine us - all the rules are designed to make it impossible to own a dog." I responded by saying that I had turned the corner - I have been so immersed in the dog world where the positives are so clear and so constantly affirmed - that I now felt like its just a matter of time before the fear that has been building around dogs over the last few years will lessen and there will be a move towards an understanding of how brilliant the dog community is -and its all because of the animals.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Saturday 27 June - Dance

I have invited members of the dance community to join the site. Some may not be aware but the "Four Legs" project is diverse. Alongside the key focus of participation in dog walking - are several other side projects. One of these "Commune" - is being explored with the post graduate dance students at Uni, some staff and freelance practitioners as well. The aim of this event has been to take some of the ideas that have arisen from the dog walking and explore them in a theatre/conventional dance context. A kind of reversal of the main project - which has been to take the resources of dance and leave the theatre - "Commune" sets the issues back in the theatre.

The first discussion point explores 'participation vs observing'.

It is suggested that the joy, creativity and potential of dance is found in the 'doing' – that it is the participation in corporeal/embodied activity – i.e. activity that requires all the senses, that produces the experiences of dance. At its core dance is about felt experience through activity.

“Four Legs” explores the idea that the potential for new experience, to feel and sense new experiences exists in our everyday lives. In activities like dog walking our senses are alert – we are actively stumbling into new sensations that are at the heart of creative activity.

This is where the dogs come in and where due to their presence, dog walking becomes dance. With the addition of a dog – as a spontaneous and instinctive influence walking becomes increasingly unpredictable. Or perhaps the experience becomes more lively – an alert and playful dog requires attention. Participation in the unruly activity of dog walking brings new sensations and feelings – that arrive through the 'doing' of the walk. Crucially too, these experiences are unrestrained – they are not tied to a rational or conscious ordering – they come and go as small(or large) interruptions. Is it this appearance of unexpected sensation that is the creative potential of dog walking?

Describing dance in this way is quite a shift from how many would imagine dance. Instead of making steps and music the priority - here movement or action of any sort - that involves the body fully is thought of as dance. The creative potential that resides in 'doing' is the exciting thing - and this version of dance extends the potential it carries to everyone.

Any responses greatfully received. Post to the discussion board.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Purakaunui

Purakaunui Beach - and the Mapoutahi headland - which I understand was breifly a Pa site. A very cold day - we walk around the estuary - and discover the Purakaunui Urupa.

I went for a swim - can you believe it.






Monday, June 15, 2009

What now? June 15


Its time to take stock. With the support of the dog walking community I have gathered a large amount of archives - photos, video, audio, some written contributions - and many cartoons and sketches of variable quality via the "Good dog, bad man' boards in the Uni link. Unlike the drawing of "Monty"- which I rate as tops. Many other side projects are either underway or now complete - some are major undertakings. These have been either collaborations or independent projects by contributors. The response has been fantastic - THANK YOU to everyone who has become involved. Ongoing contributions are still most welcome - and there are a number of future projects still in the mix. I am hoping that "both "Kennel Club" and "Commune" will be realized - its a matter of resources at this stage.

I need to take a bit of time to reflect and then shape all these elements into a presentation that can bring the project together in a cohesive form - to clarify the goals, achievements and future of the project.



This photo is another favourite - it has the shadow of a figure just discernable in the left hand corner - an accident of course in the fading light.

Warrington

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Thurs 4 June

What a day! Too much to do and where have all the good times gone? Have you seen the Kuri/dog sculpture on the waterfront - Leander St? Its by Stephen Mulqueen - I hope the link works.


Its application day - all the different funding agencies have their deadline tomorrow - which means the last day for posting is Thurs - and that has to be super quick mail. As a freelancer I have to always have an eye on the future - and the next project - up to two years in advance - which means 24hr days around deadline time.


T and I stop off at the park on the way down the hill from Wakari - I forget its name - yes I pick up. T then has to wait around while I do my posting etc. While we are in the post office I take my eye off her and notice she has shied away and is lying under the table away from the queue - shes letting me know that all is not well - and it becomes clear that the person behind hates dogs and clearly thinks T should NOT be in the post shop. The staff however have a different idea.

We survive and its off to the Waldron - but guess what its wall to wall Ds and regular cop cars and its fun day with guns at the shooting range. And yes they do shoot at figures - take a look.



I'm still hunting a venue for the showing in July - the Aquatic Centre is great but maybe a bit far from the Uni - Dan and I are negotiating on the Old Gym which is perfect. Negotiations prove difficult but things work out when I go straight to the source and deal with the users not the timetable guy.

12.30 and its Logan Park -meet the fabulous Film Clubbers who are still keen on the project in site of many set backs with equipment, dogs and the weather. Its a great school and very busy in the arts. Kristan the Media Studies teacher is fantastic supporting the students and project.


2pm and its Beatrice. We have met before - I'm intrigued by Beatrice's work and interest in things community. I'm tired and generally incoherent but B is onto it. Biscuits and tea help. She also has a garden full of black plants- this is fascinating. Saphy her dog is loving the sun and the special lunch enjoyed before my arrival.

Quick visit with Peter the set designer who is helping out with "Commune" a Uni based side project.

Tomahawk and the crew. Everyone is out. Digby dog Bossdin, Maisie and a couple of stray Schnauzer's.


Alice the lovely black misfit is walked by a very young boy - the dog always pulls and runs away - but shes smart and comes back. The weed eating Shar Pei crosses are out and about. Their walker is the neighbour who cant stand to see them tied up all the time.



Finally its the last thing of the day - a "Commune" meeting. We adjourn to the local bar instead and celebrate Hahna's thesis submission.