Postcards from the Blog

I find my self thinking of the Finish This posts as either; the pages of a huge and sprawling book that are falling down to me daily, in a random order, that I must piece together to find the coherent narrative or, as a box of postcards or private letters written by many different people over a long period of time but all about the same extended family, a sort of piecemeal family history. In either scenario the vignettes can be seen as independent or as interconnected. Maybe disconnected is a better way of describing them? Yes, these posts are disconnected, fragmented parts of a greater whole.

I'm not sure what I want to do with them.

The blog is gradually evolving from a two-line entry, private conversation between Mr. Huth and myself into a more open collaboration, other writers are being included and I hope, in time, to attract some more contributors. I want to continue with the independent, unconnected lines forming independent, disconnected posts. But then I would like to take these posts out of such a virtual context as the blogosphere and give them a little more physicality. I'm not sure of the appropriateness of a bookwork now, as I had initially intended, as this would force the posts into an order (probably chronological) that would impose a rigidity in the way the posts were read next to each other.

I'm not explaining myself very well here. Let me try again.

If the posts were laid out in a book with their numbered order you would more than likely read them in that order - while they are on the internet you can instantly link from each line to its source and view that line in an entirely different context. The way the blog is laid out also encourages a non-linear viewing of the posts - the archive and previous posts links can easily be clicked to reveal a whole different set of posts and again, a different set of contexts. You may never get the same story or the same meanings and connections twice.

Another possibility is a public reading of the texts, maybe with some kind of live feed (have a look at 'Live Chat' by Uninvited Guests, for a performance generated live between the virtual space of the internet and a real, geographical social setting) so that the texts are read in a randomly generated order, dictated by a volunteers personal route through the site. However, this also does not allow for every audience member/participant to find their own, personal route through the story.

Both these possibilities would generate new contexts and meanings for the lines/posts but would remove others. I wish to keep adding layer upon layer of meaning and think any subtractions would be detrimental to the work. At the moment, the project sits best within the virtual context it was designed for.

There is a third option, during the next phase of my degree course, I have the opportunity to put on a solo performance piece or 'Statement in Action'. I wonder if I could take some of the posts and present them in a variety of ways through live performance and multi-media, showing my route through the story, as it's collector. I feel this would only be possible after the cessation of the project so as not to bias the journey of others. Anyway that's a whole other documentation blog, I'll keep you posted...

In the meantime, any better suggestions for ways I could use/expand on/physicalise this work are always gratefully accepted. Answers on a postcard please.