I am signing off from both BOW and CS in anticipation of beginning the final module, Sustaining Your Practice (SYP). The project I have submitted is, I hope, a lively object that will continue to develop throughout SYP and perhaps beyond – the underlying inquiry is likely to, certainly.

I am aware that my BOW why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers is plagued with an internal tension between my/its desire to explore a Donna Haraway-like-‘compost’-reality for an audience that ‘sees’ in a universe still dominated by a Cartesian subjectivity (albeit one in crisis). And that dichotomy means it might well fall flat on its face. I hope it manages to avoid such a fate.

It’s worth listing some immediate ideas that I intend to explore in SYP.

• I want to take a look at the printed publication slightly differently – now that the writing is secure, I think it is worth seeing what the printed version might look like without any fragmented text on image pages. However, I think the ePublication should continue with the text-fragments as the monologue would not work there. This further differentiates the two versions. The fact the book exists in two different states is integral to the project.
• I would like to go back and make sure I have picked up all the valuable statements made by the app. The central text in the printed version has room for (perhaps significant) development.
• I have experimented with vocalising the app’s text myself – I have to admit, my attempts are at the moment truly crap, and I am very happy to put that aside as something tried and best forgotten. I also recorded the app’s text being read by a seeing AI app which reads things out for people whose eyesight is compromised – which was less crap, but a bit hackneyed nevertheless, and so not worth (in my mind) pursuing (although maybe audio descriptions of the images are worth looking at). However, there were some moments where the seeing/reading app went quite, quite wrong, and I am very interested in those fragments.
• I suspect there are more photographs to be made. I will revisit certain images and look at making a selection of mini series’ to include in a longer edit.
• I am really not sure about the moving image element – if I end up organising an online/offline exhibition, it may be something to develop again. I like the idea of having moving-image as another fractal-ed version but it has to be right. And as positive as some were about what I’ve concocted now, I just don’t believe it is at the moment.

That’s it for these modules. Can’t quite believe I’ve almost reached the end of this degree, which I began thinking I’d only do one module…

SYP available here.