Election time

April 26th



It's election time again here; the charade of democracy where politicians come around and promise the sun, moon and stars, then sell everything off to corporations once they get their hands on power.

Or, in the case of Shell, give everything to corporations.

Public Meeting #1

April 25th

Miles 171

Carbon Footprint 48kg

Expenses 16 euro on food

It turns out that the planning process is an 8 week process, not 6 as I had been told last week. I went to see Tom Barry, the Director of Services, who will try to call a special Council meeting as soon after June 20th [new closing date] as possible.

The planning process will now take longer than the time that the Space Shuttle will be in position!

So, it's all part of engaging with public space in a rural context and of being an interface between the world and the Insitutions that control it.

I worked some more on the National School programme, then dropped the final version of the Planning documents to the sites where they can be publicly inspected (Silvermines National School and the Area Office, Newport). This was my first trip to Newport; another little gem of a place. Very real and interesting; a combination of Tidy Towns and ramshackle-ness.

I drove the scenic route back to Silvermines - wow! The road was so steep that I didn't dare to stop and take photos! Three young deer jumped across the road at the top, it gave me a shiver down my spine.

I met with Pat Keane in his house in Silvermines, a very nice man with a lovely dog and a house full of photographs. I hope to go back and talk to him some more.

In the evening I set up the Public Meeting in the local hall, which is a wonderful building from 1951 - huge! And it has a large stage with functioning curtains and wonderful dusty, musty old wooden floors. I set the meeting up in a small backroom.

There were 9 people in attendence; that was a very good turnout for a small village and there is great enthusiasm for the 'museum' idea.

I stressed, but will need to keep stressing, that my project is not a real museum; its Museum as Metaphor. The idea for that project is evolving and can be seen on the Silvermines section of the website.

I got some great leads on my Stuffed Animals!!!!

silvermines - the groundwork

April 24th

Denis O' Sullivan asked me to do a live interview on the Arts Show of Tipp FM this evening to discuss the project. I agreed reluctantly - alone with children this evening, and 7-8 is about the noisiest time of the day when they are both tired and fight like cat and dog.

I tried to go into the garden to speak, but the phone kept acting up. One of the children stepped on a penguin christmas decoration, which then played Jingle Bells continuously throughout the interview, and they fought over a bicycle which caused the dog to start barking furiously.

The longest three minutes of my life. I have no idea what I said as my concentration was entirely on trying to stay out of range of the noise.

Anyway, just finished putting together a programme called Imagining Silvermines to start the project off in the National School. It's a way of introducing psychogeography to the project, creating maps based on experience rather than topography or infrastructure.

I also put together a short presentation for the talk tomorrow night; just a few slides - don't want to bore them. It's about listening to their ideas and answering their questions.

planning permission required - groan

April 18th

Miles 170
Carbon Footprint 44kg
Expenses 10 euro on food

At 11am I finally got to meet Tom Barry, the director of Services to discuss the logistics of the Space Shuttle in Silvermines. In particular I wanted to discuss planning, insurance and power.

To my horror, it emerged that I would have to go through the planning process. From that moment I had six days to organise a planning application (and get a notice into the local paper) in order to give the public the requisite six weeks to make submissions and still be in time for the June 18th Council meeting.

The day got turned completely on it's head from that moment. I had to meet the Administrator of the planning dept. and find out what was needed for the application (Site Notice, Planning Notice, Map with boundaries of site marked, planning document describing project etc. locations of where planning documents could be viewed for the six week period etc.)

The first thing I had to do was find someone who could authorise use of the green space adjacent to the National School as a site for the Space Shuttle. I rang Billy Grace, the prinicipal of the National School, who was shortly leaving to take the children swimming. I jumped in the car and raced out to Silvermines; he turned out to be totally supportive and felt that the green space would be a good location for the structure. He reccomended some local people to approach about it as well, and agreed to attend a public meeting with me the following Wednesday evening.

I drove back to Nenagh and tried to get all of the documentation together; got the planning notice into the Nenagh Guardian and printed up some posters for the Public Meeting. Arranged the use of the local hall. Drove back out to Silvermines, put up some posters, met the Parish Priest and asked him to include a notice in the parish newsletter that Sunday; also rang Nora Ryan who does the Silvermines notes in the Guardian and asked her to include a piece.

Drove home and did an e-mail to all of the local press [three newspapers and two radio stations].

It's all part of the investigation of public space in the rural context of course!

Silvermines in the evening sunshine

April 11th

Miles 171
Carbon Footprint 44kg
Expenses 112 food and materials

Left home at 7.15; drove to Limerick to buy microphone for mini-disc and DV tapes and discs. Drove on to Silvermines, did some recording in Cuan Mhuire of the birdsong. Drove to the Irish Aluminium Co. in Nenagh and did some more filming. Met Martina Finn after lunch, discussed the direction and also the logistics of locating the Space Shuttle in Silvermines.

I met with Gearoid Fitgibbon, community development officer in Newport, discussed a few ideas. Went out to Dromineer, just to check out Neddy’s cottage again – really like the cottage, but not so inspired by the surroundings. Can’t really imagine how it would work there for an art project. There’s a sort of ‘transient’ feel to the community (boats, tourists).

The sun came out and I wanted to see how Silvermines looked in the evening, how the light fell on the old mines and also if there were any teenagers hanging about. (Have not see any to date). Met up with Martina Finn, walked around, checked out the Handball Alley (good for evening films in the summer) went into Hickey’s pub in the evening and met Tommy Hickey who has wonderful stories about the place. Asked him if I could go back and interview him, to which he agreed.

SPACE SHUTTLE!

April 5th

I got a phone call from PS2 to say the the Ground Up Artists’ Collective was awarded the Space Shuttle, so I have the use of it for my residency from May!!! Hooray, changes everything.

Day off

April 4th

Had nothing planned for Tipp, so took a day off. At home I wrote to the Principal of Silvermines National School and proposed working with the children. Phoned all of the press and radio stations to find out if they would carry public notice about my search for Stuffed Animals. Proposed ad as follows;

Do you have a stuffed animal? Or know the whereabouts of one? Fiona Woods is Visual Artist in Residence for North Tipperary; she is conducting an audit of all the stuffed animals in the county for a photographic art project and she would like to hear from you. Please email fiwoods@eircom.net

Tipperary Star; two column ad, 1” costs 63 euro (plus vat I think).
Nenagh Guardian suggested I contact the editor and ask him to take it as a feature (which to their credit they did!) Tipp Midwest Radio included it free in their noticeboard, twice a day for one week. Tipp FM didn’t call me back, but the ad was quite cheap.