Still standing!

Miles 151
Carbon Footprint 39 kg
Expenses; 30 euro travel for assistant, 8 euro on timber and hardware.

I arrived in Silvermines at 8.45, quite nervous about what I would find. It was still there - no broken windows, no missing letters, no spray paint!

There's a sort of ritual starting up process now; open up, put out the ramp, unshutter the windows, plug in the electricity, and start the process of putting visual form on the concept!

After morning mass I had four visitors; not much to show them, but we had a chat about the project, the fact that the collection can only be assembled with the collaboration of the community.

Melanie Scott (Arts Officer) came out about 11 bringing Clive (recently graduated art student getting some public art experience).

She had a conversation with the Source Arts Centre about me having a solo show there next year arising from the residency; we plumped for September/ October, which gives me a good run at it over the summer. I have to find out what kind of package they are offering.

Melanie has arranged an additional budget to do a project with the teenagers: I just have to figure out how that is going to work. Tim Bradford has referred to them as the Teenage Tipperary Situationists - I like it!! Have to figure out how to encourage them to see themselves as Situationists now. Burnt out cars is somehow part of that, part of their aesthetic . . . .

There was a good run of people throughout the day; all local, all interested, some younger boys, a couple of teenagers, and then in the evening one tourist - a rare species indeed in Silvermines.

Clive and I had a guided tour of the Old Road Estate with Sean, Tristian and Paul doing the guiding; they sang a rude song about someone in the estate that Diggler (local boy wit) had written, so I recorded them singing that.

I spent the evening looking at the space and trying to figure the aesthetic of it all; myself and Clive had a conversation in which I said that I felt we were involved in a process of trying to discover the 'art' in this project. The publication at the end will be a kind of safety valve in that it will be the art if nothing else emerges in the process.

The not knowing is important.

I stayed overnight in the camper van and got up at 7 to do some work on the timeline. I realised that I want as little as possible stuck to the walls, I would prefer if everything including text was directly on the wall, but I don't want it to be physically hand-written. I need some technology to do that but don't know what it is, some kind of transfer technology.

Lots more people came in through the day. The first to arrive were four English tourists; ironically I ended up giving a sort of introduction to Silvermines! They were not really interested. It made me realise more that this is not about instant gratification so it makes the level of engagement by the locals all the more significant for me.

I interviewed Pat Keane who brought some great material and then Clive went off to learn how to make hay rope or Sugan's as they are known. No-one makes hay anymore so they had to use live grass, but even so they worked amazingly well.

Later in the day John O' Rourke came with some photographs; he used to play in a band on Sunday nights in the hall for dances; I am hoping that he can bring me some material relating to that and I will try to record him playing the accordion when his health improves

We closed up at 2 and had a quick wander around the Wealz plant part of the mining works that went up in 1950 and closed in 1952. Amazing place, like a ghost town, big buildings, and slag heaps everywhere, but also orchids and lots of wild flowers in pockets.

We put up shutters and left at around 4; needed to bring Clive to Birdhill for the bus and I had to get home for the Burren brand meeting.