INITIAL THOUGHTS

I’ve found it hard to decide which possible type of collaborator to pursue. 

• I’m interested in working with someone with factual/academic knowledge I don’t have, such as a philosophy, sociology or history student – I would love to have a conversation about political theory or radical history as the source for a potential project 
• I’m interested in working with someone with a craft or skill that I don’t have – particuarly interested in fashion design as a process. There’s somEthing about it that I think might create and interesting conversation, but I can’t put my finger on why. 
• Also (maybe most strongly?) I’m interested in working with someone involved in zine culture or another DIY organization – I’ve been involved/interested in DIY modes of production for a while now, and think that this will become a larger part of my practice. Another angle on it might help me along with that and I think an interesting piece could come out of a collaboration like this. 

After talking to coursemates, I’ve decided to try contacting various people and organisations from each area, aware that I might get a fairly low uptake, but that I’ll be able to ‘call it’ further down the line. I think that as well as being less stressful/precarious for me, this approach will give the process a less formal, forced structure, which sounds good to me. 

As Liz Tomlin’s report noted (and as became clear after our discussions in the session), the project is more about ‘focusing on process not product’ (Tomlin, 2017, p11) – I don’t really have any final ‘product’ in mind, and am looking forward to the conversation and the relationship that will (hopefully) form. Additionally, Tomlin explains that this is ‘To combat the ‘product-orientated’ market ethos of both HE& neoliberal culture’ – which is, frankly, right up my street.