Some project reflections -

Andy: It has been was really good to create a legacy by making a piece of work for the NCCD and Usher. I really enjoyed working with young people to make work and projections; they were different to one another but both meant I met great young people with lots to offer. This process felt like a positive approach to working with young people  - in that they made with particular outcome and public event in mind. Kieran in Lincoln seemed to grow especially both in sessions and at the projection where the press wanted to talk to him – a really positive experience. I hope that the group initiated at Lincoln can continue it felt like we catalysed something for them and organisations involved. Getting the group through the door of each venue was good, as I don’t think they would normally go there.

Steve:  I think there are lots of things to talk about. I really want to say that it goes to show that no matter what recruitment attempts you make to get people to places they don’t normally go you have to sometimes try and then let it grow by word of mouth and trial and error. I worried at first that it seemed an expensive way to get people to engage but by the end, in Lincoln particularly, that the group was working well. It was offering a space for people to make the work they wanted and it was allowing them to demonstrate and learn skills and experiences. This was all helped by bringing us in who are used to working in a flexible way, but also because the work was being supported by a really good youth worker and LOV staff. I also think that it is important to say how good it is to get some work in a municipal collection and the future potentials and knock on of that for us as a collective. I really like the neon piece and think it adds to the venues.

Lee:  I think that it made me realise how we're experts in getting folk involved or perhaps engaged. It’s to do with how our presence alters the environment in as far as being open and friendly - slowly slowly we bring them in. Which I suppose is difficult for organsiations sometimes but actually its how it needs to work – the group take ownership and other people come along because their mates said its good. I really think that we set up a situation where ownership of the work is with the participants – it means they are proud enough to turn up with their mates on viewing night. I can definitely see room for more of this work in Lincoln, there is potential future for group.

The commission validates our art - our socially engaged practice. Its about the housing and showing all of our work within the sites, and it receiving the same status as other artists - this is important. Our way of working is relevant and contemporary and needed. Personally I enjoyed exploring the formula of processing information with the group and then equally enjoyed diverting from it once people were engaged. I guess parallel projects were happening ours and there’s at this point - connected through exploring text and the potential of us all trying to communicate something important and meaningful. I like how similar and different each venue is and how the neon words fit those sites well.

Kate: I have enjoyed this commission – I feel happy with the work and the neons I think are good. The organising has been easy or at least straight forward and the LOV 1 team have done a great job doing negotiation on our behalf - I feel like we have been supported and looked after. I think we all recognise that what we were commissioned to do – a piece of work that was about using tech and the internet to look at the essence of larger cultural products – changed a bit as we went along due in part to settings and internet issues etc. However it changed for the best when in came to the groups of young people and what to for the best for them. We all know that we support them and adapt the work, not that the work is weakened just altered.  I suspect without being big headed this demonstrates that The Collaborators are receptive to the needs of people, responsive to situations and adaptable to issues and ideas. I think we responded well to the need of a site, people involved and the artwork.

I suppose I would like to think in future that issues around use of space at the Usher and booking of rooms is improved due to things that occurred when we worked there. I also hope that somehow provision is continued and opportunities made for the cohort that worked with us – they have a lot to offer. I suspect both organisations involved – Usher and NCCD know that to get teenagers in is hard and that when you’ve got them through the doors you have to be nice to them, do things that they’re interested in and work hard and differently to engage them.  Its not rocket science but it is challenging and sometimes outsiders and artists offer a way that can bridge the gap.

As a group I think we learnt a lot and it has made us think and discuss things further about collaborative/participatory filmmaking. It’s a subject that we think about a lot - where is the value, the quality and I suppose where is the work? I think we all agree that the ‘work’ for this project with the young people was about engagement and letting them make and try and experiment with new stuff. It was less about the final film, although of course people are always keen to see an end product. It was also good to use our projector on work that it was originally funded for – people/art that wouldn’t usually access it as the rental price is prohibitive.

The creation of the Neon has been in part hard won – how to edit down from so many options both from our distillations and the work of young people. We always wanted the work to talk to them too and reflect their lives and in one sense there is poetry in the final choice, that of life and possibilities, something all the young people have in front of them. The selection was also made in consideration of the buildings and their purposes – they are positive words and I suppose reflect our enthusiasum for the potential of art - both historical and new.