Contextualised paper recent discussions on Practitioner Researcher

I have been intrigued and thrilled by the discussions taking place recently on 
this forum. As on many occasions I would also be described as one of 
those ‘Lurkers’ a kind of discussion forum ‘Voyeur’ or I prefer ‘Witnessing, 
participant observer’ 

I am thinking why do I just read and not respond and think that the answer 
lies in my own lifestyle and lived experience. I have just simply been too busy 
but this is not good enough for me. Why have I been so busy? And if I am that 
busy what else may I have missed or am continuing to miss. 

Am I spending enough time thinking about what I am actually doing? 

These questions concern me greatly, they would not if I could merely continue 
to shut out, block out, ignore them and move on. I have come to and am 
approaching a time of completion and project endings. I am moved and minded 
to respond to the conversations taking place as I think there are some very 
interesting points being raised.

Brendan has prompted me to think about issues of localised validation and 
wider validation at a time when I am completing the evaluation and monitoring 
report for the arts council funding received in support of Creativity|WORKS (I 
have given up counting words or counting pages but the thickness of the 
document is about 3 inches or just under 8 cm) 

Over the last five years I have been very successful with regard to funding 
(Some Luck, Sweat and Blood) However the art of gaining funding is a double 
edged sword, the time spent putting together and application, and there can 
be up to 8-9 apps on the go at any one time is never recouped, half way 
through delivery of a project if not before one has to put together more 
applications to continue the work once completed, this can happen at the 
busiest time of project delivery so very long hours are worked. Each time 
funding is gained and projects delivered there is the monitoring and evaluation 
reports, if you have built evaluation in as an ongoing process to the project 
life is made considerably easier however pulling all the documentation in 
together and contextualising it in a 20 page 7000 word summary document is 
not unusual. (Funding fatigue is a condition and I have it) If only funding grew 
on trees?

“Learning how to be accountable doesn't have to be negative. Although at 
times laborious, it can also be a positive fillip to development.”

Moira’s words above bring me comfort a smile and some joy. 

Having completed the attached project and completed the Creativity|WORKS 
Book, I have also just completed the arts council evaluation report. This report 
does hopefully satisfy the ‘Powers that be’ however the process of reflection 
that I have ‘laboriously’ worked through and I mean worked (Physically dragged 
myself along to the PC at times) has led me now it is done to relax into deep 
reflection. The process has inspired me to think seriously about how the 
project could be done differently or begin to think about what the next project 
could be and what has really been learned not only from the last 18 months 
but going further back in a reflective process.

I am now seeking further validation beyond those I have met or know me 
personally or have any connection with the project. It is not so much 
validation but a perspective, a responsive or receptive influence from those 
outside of the localised influences. It is the complex combinations of 
validations that then inform the progress of the work I do. For me validation 
starts from my own self assessment then in ripples of influence out, family and 
friends, colleagues, acquaintances, organisations, institutions, local 
government, national government and out to global. 

Validation may also be a more inclusional receptive and responsive condition. 
For example if I am too busy to notice fully what I am actually doing or the 
influences in the world I am having how can I adequately justify the benefit to 
humanity of my actions. Also if I do not have the time to respond to the 
thinking, ideas and thoughts of others who I consider are producing work of 
highly important and influential significance in changing the current paradigms 
of thinking that have brought us to where we are. What am I thinking?   

In my early artistic career (please see attached images) I embodied the artist 
myth, alone in his studio, validating his own work and creative process; I was 
a very arrogant, angry and very driven young man. I was listed as 
a ‘subversive’ and ‘danger to the state’ because I belonged to Friends of the 
Earth, Green Peace, CND, and National Council for Civil Liberties, Amnesty 
International and the Campaign against Nuclear Energy. My work shouted at 
people ‘Look at this, this is what is happening, can’t you see’ I was not 
interested in the validation of my work other than sales of work and 
recognition for the ideas I had. It was 1978 the work I produced in 
Bournemouth during 1978-1984 gained localised validation, seen now in the 
wider domain that early work has been validated on a much larger stage. Not 
only this but I realise it was not produced in total isolation there were lots of 
artists working on the same themes, there was a movement and historical 
canon of work and I had been influenced by it consciously or not. 

I am reminded in the discussions that the arts historically had ‘Schools’ 
these ‘Schools’ started as extensions of ‘Artist’ studios and workshops. An 
artist was patronized by ‘The powers that be’ in the first instance the church, 
secondly the crown and landed royalty (Same thing in Britain after Henry 8th) 
thirdly the colleges, fourthly commercial sector, fifth trade, sixth industrial, 
seventh private. The Masters School was set up not to expand the free 
thinking, progressives of the time but to make a comfortable living on the 
aggrandisement of individuals, organisations and institutions. It was a form of 
self perpetuating indentured subservience to the Masters School that 
validated only internally regarding standards of judgement and quality. 

I offer my latest work after 30 or so years in socially engaged arts practice 
and latterly 20 years in participatory socially engaged arts more Joseph Beuys 
than Damien Hirst for any comparative students out there.

I also attach a poem 'Bath Time' from 1997 first published in ‘Dorset Waters’ 
East Street Poets Anthology in response to Alan’s wonderful work and the joy 
of reading so many poems on this forum. I look forward to your validational 
feedback and answering any questions you may have.

Offered with love from Andrew