Cool. So just a little bit about what I'm doing on my project. I'm currently doing a master's. And I'm in my like, final module. And I've always been like a community based designer. So I'm kind of looking at like Southampton. And what I can kind of do within my project to kind of bring together artists and designers in a collaborative way, but also, in the end, creating a cultural identity for the city. So the past couple of weeks have been like interviewing people and talking to people about, like, the collaborative projects that are going on that I have no idea about, but also like things that like, like organisations and what they're doing. Yeah, just basically getting a feel of like the creative community, because I sometimes feel like it's not really as obvious what the creative community is in Southampton. And I think that's become really clear in the past couple of weeks, and that a lot of organisations are on completely different paths, and not really connected in any way, which is really interesting, because it's something I didn't really know about. But yeah, so I'm just kind of like trying to, like, find things out and find out what everyone's up to. But yeah, I spoke to Mary a couple weeks ago, and she mentioned your name, and she said that it would be good to talk to you about what you do and everything that you contribute to a space.
Cool. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it sounds like a really interesting project. Sounds like you're sort of trying to piece together a complicated jigsaw, which I think sounds like to me highlight. So interesting time, it's always a positive thing. And that being successful, of course, it's also that was, yeah, has that worked out? So well.
I'm still gonna do it as in, that we won. So in my head. Because, yeah, I've been interviewing a couple of people that work. Like I'm going to interview them this week, actually, that have been like, on the judging panel for the city of culture. And then I was also like, going to interview like the panellists. And then there's also someone else that I was going to interview that was like looking at like city Podular, from a much higher up perspective, than just like in Southampton. Because I still think it's really interesting. One of the reasons like why they did win, and I think there's a lot of things behind it, like, compared to like, what's a Hampton think, but also compared to like, what people like observers think and like, yeah, it's just a lot of dynamics, and then a lot of things that we don't really think about, obviously, it's a shame that Southampton lost, because I do think they're in a great position at the moment. But it just means that we'll just come and try again. And I when, yeah, sorry. You go.
Yeah, just sort of saying that conversations I've had, since the news, or since the announcement was just that it's been such a helpful process, partly from forming a bit of more of an identity. And I think all the work that's been done, I think, has been really, really invaluable that we wouldn't have done otherwise, if we didn't go for the city of culture. And I think we've had to ask those really kind of tricky questions of that, I think have been sort of around in the mix for a while in Southampton of like, what it has Southampton got a heart, you know, how do we kind of be more joined up? I feel like there's been conversations that have been around for a while. And I think all this work is really kind of tried to do Yeah, sort of change that a bit, I think. And I think a lot of it is about that identity. And yes, it will be fascinating to hear the perspective from the panellists and people from a bit further back and how they're, how they're seeing it. So I
interviewed someone last night, that she's kind of like, she does all like the news stuff. So she does all the like the news posts of for, like the city of culture, and she's like the cultural reporter or something. And she went and visited every single one of the cities, which is, again, interesting, because she's had a firsthand perspective of like, what's been going on, and like being having lunches with different people. And she said that Bradford, they did it very much from it was kind of the community started the city of culture bed. It wasn't really from the council at all. And it wasn't anything to do with any of the MPs, which obviously very different approach to what Samsung did. So I don't know if that is obviously one of the reasons but she said that she never spoke to any of the MPs when she was there, she only spoke to the community, people that were kind of like, at the forefront of it. So yeah, different approaches.
It's very interesting. That's really interesting. Yeah. And I guess like what, what the political agenda is as well and a little bit I mean, that was sort of like real strong emphasis of like, there being a real young kind of community and Bradford community and that and that there was so much enthusiasm, even just in seeing the videos and I think I think Southampton really isn't easy ASIC, but I think there's a lot of jadedness in Southampton as well. And I wonder how much that kind of crept through in some ways, even though there has been so much enthusiasm and commitment and I think there's so much coming And Southampton. But there's Yeah, I think it's also a complicated mix of different people that have been around for a while. And there's a lot of repetition of like, these things come up so many times or this challenge or Yeah, yeah. What
Mary was saying, yeah, a lot of the same people kind of join, like the same workshops, and that she's fine. She finds it very hard to outreach to other people within the creative community, because it just seems to be like the same people that attend all the time. Which again, I think that's really interesting. That is not really like people that are on their own that are coming up the cracks. It's kind of like the same people. That mean, yes.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, I think there is. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. Like, I'm like thinking about how much the art schools in Southampton, like, join up with other stuff. And I think that is like, a way that the creativity would evolve more and yeah. Anyway, I could go off on tangents talking. I wasn't sure if you have like, most Yes, but more specific questions.
If he doesn't, like what you do, and then we can kind of like go from there.
Yeah, cool. So I work with a space doing coordinating studio projects. So it's working with the artists that the artists and at our house. Sort of, yeah, it's a mixture of like, the operations of the studio, so new studio members, upkeep of studios, all that kind of admin around fire safety, etc. So it's kind of building management stuff, as well as emphasis of like the community and what what can be beneficial for the community of artists, that the artists and that Yeah, I think, I guess it's the the artist has been going since 2005. That's quite a long term studio space. Or been long running. And I think the the person who worked on doing this stuff before me, started to put more emphasis of their being more kind of artists LED work within the studios projects in China connects the artist within studios with other projects going on. So rather than it just being a kind of functioning kind of studio space, people pay the random do the general upkeep. And we do it for studios once a year, it's more of a kind of emphasis of thinking about the artist development side of things. So thinking about what artists, what are the other things artists might need there? I mean, in some ways, it's great, because it's a kind of ready made community because it's all based around that one place. So So yeah, I mean, I guess I've kind of continue that, I guess my emphasis is, I've been working as an artist in the city as whatever, like an artist led studio group, first, for years, sort of had different studio spaces in the city, so and it was a studio and an office at the artists for a while too. So I guess from that perspective, I guess I'm just often thinking about what what's what's this needs, you know, what do I need? What, what are the people that I'm testing to need? And so I guess that that really influences how I'm approaching the work within the studios. Yeah, and I find
that you find that a lot of artists that easily collaborate with one another, or is it just kind of like, they kept completely separate? How'd you find that the project kind of work?
In some ways it Yeah, happens quite naturally, as someone joins the studio, and they've sort of hit it off with someone. And yeah, there definitely have been collaborations that have happened. And, yeah, I feel like there's there's always much more potential for like collaboration, I guess it's one of those ongoing things about the time that people have available or today, there's definitely, I guess, because I have a bit of an overview because I'm, I know, the artists, I'm working with the different artists, and some of the artists haven't even met some of the other artists that haven't been here, there for that long. So I kind of I guess I can see some of the crossovers and similarities and I mean, I don't want to be sort of, sort of, I feel like it's important that things that artists lead but I, I guess what part of my role, I organised sort of more social activities where artists can connect with each other, but more and it's the opportunity for those things to evolve. Like with Open Studios, which is once a year, which is the main event at the studios really sort of Yeah, wanting so yeah, talking to the artists about what what will be beneficial for their practice to do. Obviously, as an organisation we have things that are important from our side in terms of reevaluate Asian stuff and public kind of, yeah, kind of it needs to be a kind of meet kind of some of the targets within the organisations I speak about wanting to make sure that it's a useful thing for the artists to try something new in their practice if they want to, or Yeah, collaborate with someone else. And, and that definitely has happened within studios, for example, last year, there was a two artists there it was, it was both of their first open studio, because we had a bit of a break over the pandemic. And they did a workshop together. So one of them does primarily drawing and one of them was experimenting making inks out of different materials. So they did like a, an ink drawing workshop. So that's kind of a nice example of two people coming together to kind of support each other and just work together to do that. And, yeah, yeah, I feel like there's always more potential for people for more things to happen. And I guess part of my role is to try and see how that how I can support that to happen. And we had like a new review, like surveys, which we do once a year at the artists, which is a really good opportunity to to chat to people about what they want more of whether there's things that we can do better, as well as kind of collecting some kind of data and other fun stuff. And there's a lot of feedback about just wanting to go to exhibitions together, do more kind of meetups and things. I think particularly after the pandemic, there's Yeah, kind of inclination to connect more. So yeah, so like, for example, last month, we went to an open studios in Brighton together as a group. So and a lot of people were really keen to come out, I think there's a group of five of us in the end, so not a huge group. But yeah, at least another handful of people would have come if they weren't working, etc. So yeah, so we're gonna start to do that a little bit more, which is helpful for us as a group to plan for our Open Studios, as well as see how people are doing things differently in a different city in different contexts. And, and yeah, and then we just, I guess, conversations happened more organically, because sometimes in the studio, like people are only there, like, people's schedules are so different. Some people are there, like two days a week. Other people are there just after work for an hour, from six or seven or something, some people only there on weekends. So there's a lot there's sometimes people don't even see another artists and they're going in the studios if their time schedules are so, so off, so. And so yeah, that influences a lot of like, what the contact is to artists, for sure.
Yeah. And do you find that people like other people from within the studios kind of like collaborate with anyone like the art in art chairs, or just not really so much? They kind of they try to focus on people within arches.
Yeah, no, I think there's definitely a lot of relationships outside of the artists that probably in some ways, probably people like some more if they're already established kind of relationships. Yeah, so yeah, it's it's really very varied. But I guess, yeah, some artists, that's definitely much more important part of their practice. Yeah, yeah. So like, for example, there's an artist there who works, doing projects with filmmakers and producers, and that he'll invite them into the studio to like have a meeting and that we've also got arch forwards is a cool space for people to use us to experiment with exhibitions, installations. And yeah, so they'll have like a couple of planning days in there. And I'm working using that space. And there's another artists that every month runs, like this puppet, puppet Research Development kind of project, which seemed like sorts of different people to come and speak and do kind of workshops and stuff. And I don't know if anyone else from the artist goes along to these things. But yeah, so in some ways people are on their own tracks of like, what their interest is and who they're who they're wanting to work with. And then, yeah, and it's more incidental, I would say was the collaboration that happens within the studio, just because people's practices so that,
yeah, and do you think that you'd ever do a project where you kind of bring everyone together? And kind of like, force them to collaborate? In some sense? I don't know. Yeah,
good question. I think that could be really interesting to do, I think, because that used to happen previously with I think, from the impression I got like 10 years ago, at Open Studios, they would it was a bit of a like, everyone put an exhibition together, find a thing and put an exhibition up. And I don't think that always went down so well, because people felt like they were trying to force something which wasn't necessarily working for them or people. didn't have time some people are doing live, some people weren't doing so much, which is always part of the mix in a way. I think some people would be really up for that there was one of the artists was trying to organise a group exhibition. Yeah, so So yeah, there's definitely some people were really up for that sort of thing. Yeah.
And you try, like, I spoke to Joss, actually, from Archer studios, I interviewed him. And he said that the main thing was like, trying to get engagement or like people to like, be involved with like, exhibitions and stuff, because I know he does that walking tour, the drawing Walking Tour, where he like sketches, the landscapes, which is really interesting. But he said that a lot of the time again, it's like the same people. And he finds it, he said that one thing he taught if if it could be improved, was that he'd try and get more people like, is there anything that you do? Or not your font to try and like get more people involved? Or is it just kind of like left up to them?
Yeah, good question. Yeah, I mean, it's something we're really aware of, and I guess, like Open Studios is the main, like, annual event at the studios is something that I do a lot of thinking around how we can like, respond to the feedback that we've had. And talk to the artists about that, you know, it's a lot of like conversations with artists, and that I think works or they don't think works, and kind of building on that. And we've had conversations about inviting other artists, or creative practitioners to do something at the open studio, so people outside of the artists to run a workshop or, or put up a stall or something. So that's the plan for this year to actually bring bringing a wider network of artists outside of the artists, artists, and that was something that actors are so keen on to. So it brings in different audiences. And so there's a more of a kind of mix. And, yeah, so that that will be really interesting to try that this year and see how that goes. And it's nice to kind of open it up a bit. And, yeah, we want to be a sort of community thing, rather than this is just our space. And this is just the base, you know, that that? I don't think that serves anyone. But I think there. Yeah, but I think inevitably, like identities do build up around, like what the community is, and that that thing you can can inform my sense of like, Oh, it's just those of us that you know, like, miss, whereas I don't think that's founded on too much really, other than maybe historically, there's been my I've definitely heard people say before, like, oh, the Arctic arches is a bit draconian, or this like a bit bit too many rules or something. And that may be one point there was, I mean, I guess I understand what some of the rules are, because I know what, why that why we need to do certain things. And I think that people don't understand why we need to do certain things, it might seem like you're just doing it for the sake of that. But the world is as it is in terms of like funding and you know, health and safety. And all of those things are important that we do that to be able to maintain what we're doing. So I think sometimes there's not that understanding, but from my side of it, the more we can kind of just build relationships with different people, the better really, and I think, yeah, there's we definitely have a lot of conversations around how we can continue to do that.
And within your own work, do you find that? Do you still practice your own work? Or is it completely?
Yeah, I do. Yeah. No, I it's really important for me to do that. And yeah, yes,
that's on the side. Yeah.
Yeah. They had no, like, I guess, part of so part of my practice, I do project which is like an artist, like feedback session. So that is something that I've been doing for a couple of years. And that was that came out of actually, like, knowing that there wasn't that many, like, opportunities for getting feedback around about work. And I've always enjoyed when people get together and finding out more about each other's work and talking about it. Yeah, it was fun, really supportive and rich conversation. And so yeah, I I started organising sessions with that, which is a little bit of funding support, and I did some training around as well. So that's more set up now. Which is cool. And that's all about Yeah, trying to try to connect with different VCs we do it in at the arts for because it's a free space. And it's sort of a good size and stuff and we ended up being easy but it's definitely not just parts as artists we really want to work with lots of different artists working different mediums. So we have like a dancer filmmaker come in, we had someone who does more like spoken word stuff, and it's really like our emphasis like With the sort of limited time that we have is to just connect with different artists and that they bring their networks in. And so different artists meet each other. And that has been something that's evolved definitely, like we've tried to build relationships with the university to say some of the students they were asked, because I think after you leave, like university, there's a bit of like a war. You know, how do I have these chats? You know, like, people and because it's a bit separate? So which one a lot relationships that you need? So that's what we do. Yeah, we've got to have a website called critical exchange. It's critical exchange.org. Some reason, though, I couldn't find it when searching yesterday, but it is it is there. I'll send a link to that. Yeah, that isn't about trying to sort of build relationships and stuff between different networks,
or do you find that a lot of people come to that?
Yes, it's been quite varied, really. But yeah, because if the artists that are showing their work, have their own networks, and they usually bring along their kind of network, so it is quite a few different people. I think over the three years that we've been doing it like last year, we only did it. Although, yeah, so the last two years have been a bit weird, because it's been mostly people who haven't wanted to come on to questions so much. And we did a couple of live online sessions. I'd say we've had like, over like, I don't know the numbers off the top of my head. But we usually have like between 15 and 20 artists, each session that we've done. And I'd say we've probably had, like, there's some consistent people, but we've definitely had new people coming in and coming along. And people that are either new to the city or just looking for where they're where there's a sort of community thing going on. So I think I would say probably like, I'd say like, probably, like between 70 and 80, like different artists and
artists. Well, that's quite largely.
Yeah, yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it'd be nice to run the sessions more regularly. We're just saying for this year. But yeah, it's saying that we, yeah, I mean, I guess we just balance it between our other kind of work really mean, the other artists that facilitate it. So. Yeah, when I'm actually doing this. Yes. It's been a long time. Yeah, I'm not saying I have less time to do that. But um, so test it a little bit. Yeah, I think that was all my questions. Yeah,
that was really helpful. Yeah. Thank you so much. I'm meeting with zest later. I'm, yeah, I'm trying to interview that. I think the reason that Mary suggested you was that, um, I found it really difficult to, like, connect with some of the artists because I just really wanted some like, first opinions. But I've now managed, I feel like I've managed into like five or six of them. And I think was asked later as well. I think I'll be okay. But obviously, I completely understand that artists are in their own worlds and sometimes very difficult to take the time or like be able to fit in just a quick interview.
Have you been in touch with arches office?
I emailed them. Yeah. I found, like Instagram or like if they had their email, I like tried. But the one of the people that I did want to try and get in contact with was Nathan. Because I know that he was a part of like, well, I mean, they've put his face everywhere for the bed, haven't they? So I did want to try and get in contact with him. But I obviously he's obviously very, very busy. Which is fine. Yeah, he was one of the main people but yeah, I just was the only one that replied from Arches. And I interviewed Sarah filmer, as well. She aren't Yeah. Yeah. I interviewed her the other day as well. Yeah, okay. Yeah. So I interviewed her and then I've tried to interview some from like, zest that or like the peaches? I don't know. They're all like different things. But yeah, I tried to do that as well. So yeah, they will reply if they reply.
Sir, yeah, sorry. I think there's a bit of Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, there's also the the keepers Artists Collective, which I think they have a website where you could be interesting to speak to them.
Oh, perfect. What what do they do? Are they just slightly different
they? Yeah, they set up as a collective around a studio space actually, which was a temporary studio space, and then they look for new studio space. I think they're currently without a studio, but they still trying to do stuff and I think they've got a project coming up. Out No books I think that um but yeah they yeah I think they have a website and and some of them are still active doing stuff so maybe they might be good to speak to as often as
I've definitely gotten caught up with a perfect or just under audit
