Creative Conversations on the Virtual High Street
Creative Conversations on the Virtual High Street: Kerry & Jo have a natter about the magic shared in these sessions.
Before we dive into our chat on Creative Conversations here’s a little bit of context …
#Doing in Dudley — led by CoLab Dudley Collective members — challenges how we think about, experience and use our High Street. We’re interested in how together we nurture a kinder, more creative and connected Dudley High Street. During the COVID-19 pandemic we have created a Virtual High Street so that we can continue to support experiments which invite curiosity, nurture creativity and unlock collective resourcefulness. One of the experiments in nurturing creativity has been the very joyful and inspiring weekly Creative Conversations with creatives, makers and artists hosted by Kerry (part of the Fused team and a Creative Partner in CoLab Dudley). In this note Kerry and Jo (CoLab Dudley researcher) reflect upon the magic shared in these conversations over the last 8 weeks.
These sessions had a number of wonderful common threads that we can use to help inform our design of future experiments and collaborations. As you read about the 8 conversations you will see common themes around generous sharing of creative practice and methods; the winding and varied journeys creatives have taken in building that skill and confidence; the creative collaborations that make their work even more exciting and joyful; as well as the intentional way in which they approach meaningful participatory work that focuses upon subject voice and power. While the distinctive cultural stamp of place — such as dialect, language, geography, architecture and social histories — was woven through many of these discussions, this was oftentime in relationship to the role of their work and practice in imagining alternative futures. Certainly we will need all of our creative talents at the heart of a new normal.
24th March — The first Creative Conversations chat was an open invitation to Black Country / Birmingham-based creatives, artists and organisations to chat about the current situation
Jo: Just a few days after the UK entered pandemic induced lockdown the Creative Conversations series on the Virtual High Street began. Kerry during this session you gently encouraged creative project introductions and reflections on lockdown for creative projects and practices. What was your intention and hope behind this first Creative Conversation?
Kerry: We were almost ready to start to invite people to ‘drop in’ and join us at lunchtimes on the actual High Street space and we’d started to have a think about what those conversations might be about. Our Dudley People’s Archive project is the kicking off point to start conversations with people on the High Street — to give people a reason to pop in, have a chat, share stories and tell us their hopes, dreams and desires of a reimagined High Street.
When we were in the space, looking out through those large floor to ceiling windows and watching the people walk by we knew things were about to change. We didn’t quite know when. So starting the conversations on the 24th March, the day after the lockdown was announced, was a strange experience.
What we did know is that things were going to be very different and that our world, our engagement with people, our ideas for projects would need to change. What we also knew is that there is a wonderful creative community in the Black Country (and beyond) that would also have to adjust so I reached out to some of the people I know to see how this was going to affect their projects.
This was our first delve in to bringing people outside of our team in to the world of Zoom meetings — so beyond the obvious nervous tech issues and hosting in a virtual space — I wanted to find out how others were feeling, their thoughts on what was about to happen and how they might change their projects to reflect the situation.
We had about 20+ people drop in to that chat and people were really happy to share experiences and ideas. A lot of people were really waiting things out; observing how others might move forward. In hindsight they were absolutely right.
Tuesday 31st March Lynda led us through a conversation on the continued relevance of the work and philosophy of William Morris
Jo: Lynda talked with a quiet and knowledgeable passion on the life, work and philosophy of William Morris. The conversation quite quickly came round to the relevance of his work to our Covid pandemic and Climate Emergency context. From his focus upon not separating art, work and life; to learning from and being inspired by nature; and finally to doing work that is truly valued, the lessons were evident for a post pandemic future. It has been a joy to hear these lessons flow as a common thread through many of the conversations with the other creatives over the series.
Kerry: It is interesting to me that people might separate creativity from the rest of their life. That art is somehow not integral. If there is one thing that lockdown has taught us it is the appreciation of what is around us. To notice the beauty in the everyday. To be creative with our resources. To want to make our surroundings desirable.
That lockdown happened in Spring, as nature resurfaces from the Winter months, has given us the opportunity to really take in what is around us. With no noise we recorded the birds in the trees (everyone agreed they sounded louder), we bought bird feeders to bring them even closer. We watched as the trees blossomed, the shoots came up from the ground, the colours of our daily walk changed. We got our phones out and shared pictures of nature. Probably the most creative of things to happen is to notice and appreciate (in whatever form that takes) the beauty in the very things we take for granted and often are too busy to notice.
7th April: photographer Laura Dicken
Jo: Listening to Laura discussing her creative practice, her journey and the Doers & the Curious of Dudley project was a real joy. We are so very lucky to have an artist like Laura Dicken in the collective sharing her magic. As Laura spoke about her work I was struck by how her socially minded practice is rooted in true collaboration and an authentic focus upon the power of representation. Laura talks powerfully about the narratives we all write for ourselves or have written about us and the places we are from. I love that she reminds us these narratives aren’t fixed and can be challenged and re-written through our creativity.
Kerry: The Doers & the Curious is the perfect example of an engaging project that brings together so many aspects of creativity. What does creativity mean? It can be different to so many people. It isn’t just picking up a paint brush; it is collaboration, it is caring enough to get involved and make a difference, it is the way we think — it can take all kinds of different forms. Laura’s project exemplifies this. She leaves ambiguity in the image, not forcing us to make an assumption. We get a ‘hint’ from the surroundings of the images of what it is people might do, but they feel natural. Her use of natural light frames each person giving them the authenticity they deserve. Laura doesn’t tell us how to react, she doesn’t force any preconceptions upon us, or theme the images, but she gives us the time and space to become curious ourselves. There’s a real kindness and generosity in her work that comes from a place that can’t be learned.
Jo: I should mention that as part of Laura’s collaborative process we have popped into this little booklet/zine the wisdom shared by the wonderful participants in response to questions around the urgent role of curiosity and creativity in all of our lives. Once we are back on the actual High St there will be hard copies to leaf through, but in the meantime please dive into this digital copy over a cup of tea when you can take a break. Their words are truly joyful and timely as we respond to this crisis together.
21st April: Poet and upcycler Rick Sanders
Jo: For me your creative conversation with Rick Sanders (aka Willis the Poet) popped and crackled with the power and creative agency of collaboration! In many of Rick’s creative practices there is a focus upon paying careful attention to what we value and how we (re)value it. There was also a lovely thread around cultural democracy and our right to beauty that resonates with so much of the work by the CoLab Collective (as manifest in our Do Fest 2019 learning). As ever Rick was a passionate and generous advocate of other creatives’ work. This importantly helps us to have greater visibility of the rich ecosystem of creatives in the Black Country. I felt nourished after this session and hopeful.
Kerry: Rick is a doer. He gets involved. He tries things out. He gets others involved. There is no agenda with Rick other than the need to create. To me he is the modern equivalent to those from the Arts & Craft movement — I called him a ‘renaissance man’. Like Laura he has a calmness and generosity which is why his collaborative projects work so well. I enjoyed how multi-faceted his process can be and, like many creatives, his pursuit is a lifestyle choice. He combines artforms and experiments with unique approaches which is inspiring.
I think Rick’s chat saw a kind of change in the style of the Creative Conversations — it was much more subject led rather than a Q&A or directed by me. He was happy to chat through his work with just a minimum interjection from me.
I think it was Rick’s chat where Lorna suggested that we use the Zoom ‘CHAT’ to host questions, provocations, and links which worked really well. It was also when we started the Eventbrite invitations after the previous week’s Zoom bombing.
28th April: Photographer Alison Baskerville
Jo: Alison Baskerville’s Creative Conversation was a beautiful, honest, authentic story-telling grounded in the deep ethical roots of her art and methods. Her process was a welcome reminder to me of the importance of our own focus upon HOW we represent, document, and collaborate as a lab. The intention that shapes the HOW seems as important as the WHAT in Ali’s work. As with Laura I really valued the insights Ali shared in terms of socially minded creative practice.
Kerry: Ali is probably the person I knew the least going into the Creative Conversation so I did take more time to research, read about her work, delve into the projects she has done. We also had a chat the evening before as I was conscious of the sensitivity of some of Ali’s work and wanted to check in to see what she would be happy to talk about.
What was surprising to hear was that Ali wasn’t formally trained as a photographer. Her journey into photography is so interesting and she has seen and been to some amazing places. What I found really interesting was her shift in attitude to her work and her influences. As her work grew her references developed and shifted which has taken her to explore issues around femininity and gender in ways I certainly haven’t explored.
Ali’s talk is where I started to see connections with Rick and Laura; being self taught; a passion to create; integrating (gently) a passion for key issues through the narrative of their work; collaboration and the importance of relationships with *subjects (*not the word they used to describe the people they work with I must add).
5th May: Geoff Broadway — The Living Memory Project
Jo: I really enjoyed this creative conversation with Geoff from Living Memory Project as he peeled back the many layers to the project which stressed the remarkable ecosystem of creatives involved over the three year period. Geoff’s reflections and this project remind us of the key role of oral histories and artefacts like home photo collections in holding our everyday culture. Projects like this stress why it is so important to value, capture and make visible these histories. They are key to shared generational wisdom, to our identities, and to our sense of place. But perhaps most of all — as Geoff reflected — their value is in their capacity to nurture our empathy for others.
Kerry: I wanted to speak to Geoff as at this point we’d been working on a more (than originally planned) ‘digital’ engagement of the Dudley People’s Archive and I wanted to hear about Geoff’s experience with oral history projects (of which he has worked on many). I’d been following The Living Memory Project and knew of a few people working on it and I was looking forward to their program on events in April / May / June.
What I loved about the chat with Geoff was not just the incredible multi layered approach, the vast amount of wonderfully rich resources the team gathered and how they had connected with people to find the stories but Geoff’s ability to real off the names of people who shared their images. It felt like he knew them all, and showed how much he cared for their contributions.
The project included a creative response to the work and what Geoff shared with us was so inspiring. The commissioned artists that he worked with have produced some beautiful work that is yet to be shared because of the lockdown — I just hope we get to see it.
There were some lovely conversations taking place in the Zoom chat too with people sharing their stories of where they grew up and how they’d taken part in the project.
12th May: Photographer Tom Hicks of Black Country Type
Jo: Every time I hear Tom Hicks speak I am struck by how he helps make his work so relatable and human for his audience. That relatability conveys such beautiful visual narratives of the Black Country and what it means to be an artist in this landscape. Revealing striking beauty in spaces often forgotten or undervalued by the casual observer, but not those who call it home, and not to Tom who has an instinct for paying attention to the aesthetic magic in the local and everyday. As ever a joy to see his photography and hear about his methods and worldview. And then to end on a beautiful invitation for collaboration from Rick — again I thought “Lucky us!!”
Kerry: Tom is probably one of the people I know the most going into the conversation as he led 2 of our Paint Dudley photo walks in 2019 and we’ve featured his work in Fused (both print and online) over the last few years. However because his work is about so much more than taking photographs whenever I hear him speak I get something new from him.
I really liked the way Tom shared influences and artists / photographers that he has since found with a similar aesthetic. I also enjoyed the honesty in learning — he was so candid in his approach; what had worked and what didn’t; people who gave him tips and advice; what he has learnt along the way.
I enjoy how he looks at the world, the streets, the building, the manhole covers. He gets on his bike and cycles around the Black Country looking out for things that catch his eye — even a glimpse. He’ll find a way in, he’ll chat to people, he’ll find out more. He’s inquisitive but not intrusive.
What struck me also during lockdown is that we are all noticing things that are closer to home but Tom has been doing this all the time. He finds beauty in the close-by and the ordinary — creating something extraordinary.
19th May: Collage Artist and Graphic Designer Mark Murphy
Jo: I have been struck by the humility of all the creatives and how they have all stressed the process of building creative confidence in their journey to refine their creative practice. I loved how Mark Murphy’s work so explicitly weaves place, space, landscape and people together in wonderfully provocative ways. Again the richness of his collaborations with different artists and archivists lifts up this thread around the creative power of collaboration. Again — like Rick — there is a recasting and playful composition of old and unused materials to make them renewed and relevant. Without doubt that is a gift for this time!! Meanwhile I discovered there is such a wonderful thing as a Collage party!! I loved the 3 min video Mark did for Multistory so I have popped it here for those that couldn’t join us on the Virtual High St. My favourite comment on his creative approach was the embracing of “serendipity, chance and flow”: https://youtu.be/P49ISh6uY6k
Kerry: What resonated with me is Mark’s digital vs analogue world. For those of us that design and create on the screen being able to work on projects that take us away from that — even for an hour — is so tempting. Mark’s work and style, like Tom’s work, is probably the one that inspired me to ‘give it a go’. There was something about their approach and sharing of the journey from starting (mistakes made, things learned) that give you the creative confidence to try something.
Mark’s “there’s no undo button” comment resonated with me. Too often we can take a photo (or lots of photos) or design something on the screen and then take it back to the original, or remove the steps that we don’t like. I like the idea of taking that extra care, slowing down, looking closer. I feel that is something our digital lives miss now. The CMD Z (as us mac users know all too well) gets us out of many situations.
When Mark was talking about sourcing work, and the vintage found prints he uses he said he was ‘channelling his hidden Womble’ — I immediately thought of Rick and his upcycling projects. He also talked about ‘dabbling’ with different methods to share work which is how Tom described his initial process (trying Facebook first to share images before settling on Instagram as a more kinder and appropriate platform).
We had a few more ‘technical’ questions from people for Mark’s chat — lots of why do you use this, and what if this happens.
Image: A friendly welcome to the Virtual High Street while you are in the Zoom waiting room.
Jo: Finally, I wanted to thank you Kerry for your gentle welcome and convening of Creative Conversations. Your skill in making us feel like we are all having a friendly chat over a brew with these wonderful creatives is an art form in itself! Creative Conversations have been a source of joy, solace and creative inspiration during lockdown.
Kerry: I surprised myself that I have started making connections between projects, people, and attitudes that might seem obvious for others but take some effort for me. However a few common themes of our speakers were certainly generosity of sharing, kindness in taking the time to tell stories, and the importance of collaboration.
After 8 weeks of events I feel like I have just gotten into my Zoom hosting style. It’s not so different to chatting to people in a physical space and I hope that the convening via Zoom is a reflection on the work that David and I do when we host events and workshop to try and keep things casual, light touch but useful — so that we’re all getting something out of being there are investing our time.
We’re going to take a little break from our Creative Conversations — I had intentionally booked them until the end of May — naively thinking that this situation might all be over by early June.
As we gently ease out of lockdown our thoughts turn back to the physical High Street. With questions that still haven’t really been resolved: How DO we make meaningful connections during a time of physical distancing? Will people WANT to come into our space? WHEN will things get back to some kind of normality? HOW do we keep everyone safe?
We are working up some ideas to animate the High Street; the research is ongoing, the chats continue and we’ll diversify as creatives do.
Thank you to EVERYONE that has joined us for Creative Conversations — through the tech glitches (not too many), the Zoom bombers (phew only once and for 5 minutes) and the extended Q&As. Thank you to our guests for their generosity and sharing their stories, practice and process and thanks to Lorna and Jo for co-facilitating.
P.S. You can find out more ways to join us on the Virtual High Street here: https://doingindudley.net
