Meeting with Daniel Cutmore

Hi Guys,
I have just had a fairly lengthy meeting with Daniel Cutmore at Look11 regarding some Look11 stuff and our project. Chris, Daniel sends his apologies for not getting back to your email, he has been pretty swamped.
Daniel has told me that he needs a project overview asap, as Look are about to begin sending out long lead press releases. He says that it would also be very useful if we could submit some content for inclusion on the Look11 website. I gave him a brief overview as I saw the project: environmental portraits of activists and supporting multimedia, connected to social networking, blogging etc. Daniel also showed me Chris's email, regarding the exhibition as a waiting room. Can we have some discussion about this please, as I'm not entirely sure about what we said (my memory is not the best!). Chris, could you forward that email please so the rest of the group can see it? I sounded him out on the ipad/tablet idea and he seemed to think it could work. He said that if we can provide him with a project proposal, he can take this to Apple to see if they will lend us some (he said that Apple aren't too generous, but i think it's worth a try as if we were to do the exhibition on tablets, it would be a good demonstration of their ability to manage content and web based applications).

In terms of venue, he suggested that we could run the exhibition as a "pop up", i.e. that instead of having it in a fixed location, we could take it to various events over the course of the festival, running it on a day/half day basis. If we were to do the exhibition on ipads, this would be a great way to exhibit it and would reduce any venue staffing pressures (i.e. we would not need a venue and invigilators for three weeks straight). He also suggested that the use of a pop up exhibition could encourage further participation, taking the work to the people, rather than them coming it to it, and that we might be able to reach a wider audience by participating in other Look11 events.


Let me know what y'all think, I can get moving on some of this if we're agreed.

Cheers, Adam


Activists

Hi Guys,
In a quest to come up with some activists I contacted my mum, Sara Maitland, as she has good knowledge, having herself been feminist one back in the day. She came up with these suggestions of people we could interview. Some of them are people I know, but I would be happy for others to interview them if they want. Personally, of all the people listed below I would like to interview Kate Ansell as her work is close to some of the work I do.

Sara has defined "activist" here as someone who is active in a particular political cause - rather than someone who is willing to act illegally for that cause, although they can overlap.

Kate Ansell.  Disability activist.  Kate is "Disability Bitch" (Google DB - she is sometimes a columnist on OUCH (the bbc's disability site) and is very funny. Kate is funny clever, works for the BBC and is VERY outspoken.

George Watson.  internet research for community engagement. Specialises in asking difficult questions and exposing procedure illegalities all over the place. Fights with everyone.

Rufus May. Founder of Mad Pride.
 
Jane Maitland Independent (non party aligned) Regional [County] councillor. "Good Governance/Small Government" activist

Tom Bell is an "anti-social-worker". Because he can't take a job in the system he runs a second hand car shop (and he has no bank account.)

Peter Tatchell Gay Liberation. Though another friend who is a gay activist says that it might be better to interview someone younger and less well know. I could certsainly find somebody like this is we want.

Cheers, Adam


TECH, SKILLS, Q's

TECH
A laptop and desktop computer, both Macs
External hard drives
Canon 5D mk II, Canon 400D
Sigma 18-50mm, Canon 18-40mm / 50mm / 70-200mm
Speedlite 580EX II
Manfrotto tripod
A crappy ebay remote controller
A multi-card reader
S-ATA & IDE USB 2.0 cabling for raw hard drives
Mac travel adaptors 
AA & AAA Eneloop rechargable batteries and charter
A crappy car....

SKILLS
Mac/Windows operating systems, CS3, Lightroom 2.0, Photomatix, Microsoft Office, interiors, architecture, industry, weddings, music, portraiture, HDR, tilt shifting with Photoshop, adaptability, attention to detail, a driving license, fluent Italian & competent Spanish.....

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
Tried thinking of some questions that were relevant to activism but also down to earth.
1 - Do any of your family get involved?
2 - What is your field/area/passion?
3 - What's your favourite place/activity to unwind?
4 - How did you get involved/interested in it?
5 - What is/was your full-time job? (If applicable)
6 - What keeps driving you?
7 - What other causes have you been active in?
8 - Can you describe a success story?
9 - Do you collaborate/network with other activists that aren't in your field?  If so, how?

I haven't specifically looked for causes but I'm pretty sure I know people who know activists and could be leads.  I'm hanging on for the "manifesto/advert" to the activists that want to get involved.

Tony's Subjects

Ben Goldacre highlights and opposes the way that science is misrepresent by people and organisations and the role that media and PR companies often play in this. He writes the Bad Science column in The Guardian and blogs and Twitters. His blog could be a source of activists who oppose the misrepresentation of science.


Marcus Williamson has set up a website where he lists the email addresses of CEOs of companies so that people who have had no joy contacting customer services can contact the person at the top. In the case of Barclays it resulted in direct intervention by the chief exec on customers' behalf. He is a Twitter user.


The Glasgow Media Group

http://www.glasgowmediagroup.org/

Professor Greg Philo recently appeared on the BBC (a midweek lunchtime slot) suggesting that the question of taxing the rich rather than cutting public services has been bypassed by politicians and the media. He is both charismatic and assertive:



Ironically, for a media group, hey do not seem to have embraced social media to get their message out. Perhaps they would see getting involved with our project as an opportunity to do this?


I have had some involvement with a group in Manchester called Action for Sustainable Living (AfSL). They would not generally fall under the umbrella of activists as they are a charity that promotes sustainable activity at the local community level. They may however be able to provide links to activists – Guerilla Gardeners for instance, who plant vegetables on otherwise unused public land.


There is an organisation at MMU called People and Planet who I think may be involved in activism. I will investigate this.


I know a large housing estate where all the shops were demolished recently. I believe the plan was that a property development would go up in their place and new shops would be built on a piece of disused land nearby. The shops were empty for a long period before the recent demolition, now nothing seems to be happening. I will investigate whether rumours that things are on hold are true and, if so, whether there is any organised protest.


I will do some further research where needed and get in touch with people/organisations this week to see if they might be interested in being involved with our project.

Subjects

Hello All

I decided to try and look at an unseen activist&celebrity activist

I am waiting to hear from a charity call Seeing is Believing who's goal is to restore sight in developing countries.

With the theme relating to social injustice, people are living blind when they could have their sight restored for about £20.00
and 2/3rds of those people are women (for social rather than biological reasons)

I'd like to profile an office worker/rep of the charity who work to make changes without recognition.

I would also like to profile someone who uses celebrity status to bring power to a cause.

The charity has strong links with Liverpool football club and in particular Ian Rush and I have asked to see if they could put us in touch with him
or another Liverpool related celebrity-think of the press attention our project would get in return if this is could happen.

But I've also kind of suggested we can link it with a bit of fund raising and upping the profile of Seeing is Believing through our combined networks.
I take sole responsibility for this unless anyone else thinks it's a good idea.

I also had a thought of profiling a fictitious activist&cause but letting the public know that one of our activists is an invention-it would maybe bring a dimension of arty debate to out project in a way that full fills 'is seeing believing'-opening discussion into visual media&truth and how an educated public need to look beyond the images into wider contexts such as
reputation of documenter&publisher and independent confirmation.

Just ideas

Cheers Chris

Chris Leyland Skills Set

Skills set

Languages Wiganese, believed to have devolved from English during the industrial revolution.

I was quite bright at school

Without wanting to sound like a dodgy classified ad, I have good o and a levels
(mainly science) and a BA in photography

I don't have much of a work CV
factories landscaping handyman carework
but most of my career has been in hashish,
mental illness, thinking and sometimes I worked away (LSD)
Of recent I spend my time convincing people not to
bother engaging in any of the above career choices.

I don't have many contacts without a criminal record
Lighbox was the start of my work related networking, but I have just volunteered one day a week
to Look2011

Cheers Chris

Chris Leyland 15 questions

15 questions

1 Tell me about your cause and it's aims

2 What inspired your relationship to this cause

3 Could you describe your main strategy and hope you hope this will help achieve your aims

4 How important is social networking in gathering support and getting your message out

5 Do you see your activism as a sacrifice or addition to your life

6 What are the personal rewards in it for you

7 Have or would you ever break the law or make a moral compromise for this cause

8 Can you envisage a state of things where you might decide your flogging a dead horse and throw in the towel

9 Do you ever in any way regret picking up this challenge

10 Have you got a kettle and would you put it on

11 Is there a financial cost to what you are doing

13 Was there already support for this or has support increased due to people being made aware of the situation

14 How do you switch off from the endeavour or  balance what you do with work and family life

15 What will you do if you ever achieve all your goals

Tony's Skills List

People and documentary major areas of photographic interest

Also travel and event photography

Contacts within photography department at Staffs Uni

Comfortable with print, transparency and digital

Biochemistry and Computer Science background

Sales experience (pharmaceuticals)

Worked for large IT services companies

Can program and do websites

Reasonable with Photoshop

Basic Spanish

Extensive travel experience

Comfortable giving presentations