Toilets and RD1s

I took a Christmas break from writing my Blog. After focusing on the RD1 process it felt like I needed a break. Now that I have pressed send and it has gone into the system I feel quite good about it, I'm also quite pleased that it was a struggle.  My first effort was very much done in a 'going through the motions' way; firstly I didn't really feel ready to write anything and secondly I really didn't want to think about 1500 words and six references.  I can also see why it was asked for - nothing better than a reduced palette to really get you working hard on colour.

This said I think the very first version probably ticked the boxes better than the final version. The submitted form, even though very short, was filled with contradictions and still too broad but then in another way too narrow. As a document, it reminded me of zooming in on Google Maps but going in so close that you can't find the place you want to be; you lose sight of the little map pin and have to keep zooming out to locate yourself.  I have been listening to podcasts on Whitehead.  In one, his idea of flights of speculative imagination, is described as similar to early aviators who kept having to drop down from above the clouds to find points to navigate by lower altitude until you find a landmark, plot a course and then fly back into the clouds.

I've done that this week with flush tanks. I went to the adventure playground where I'm intending to do my fieldwork and two out of three of the toilets were not working.  I was asked if I could fix them and after careful inspection decided that both flush tanks needed replacing.   At the real heart of my PhD is the idea that an Event and its edges or lack of them present a singularity.  That the idea of and the language that constructs a project - an object - a process - a singularity - an artwork- a method is a problem and that there may be a potential for art and the language of art to present or move towards a more connected sense of things.  Everyone (apart from me) that I mention the flush tank to, and to whom I describe the flu repair as an event or action that constitutes part of the event (the unfolding), thinks I'm taking the piss. I think this is a good thing and for the first time in the last three months I feel like I have really found my first chapter - the reality of what is both pragmatic and speculative, the fixing of the toilet, the restoration of flow.

I started yesterday by photographing my new flush tanks, I set up my lights and did 58 pictures.  I tried to do mock studio photos so I could talk about mannerism, then I did some close ups.  I knew when I started that my heart wasn't in it.  I knew that if I were actually to use them I would need to do them in a studio with a photographer friend.  They were just not good enough. I wasn't photographing the cisterns as a joke,  I was not trying to make art.  I was however aware that the photographing was part of the event. When they arrived from Ebay - new old stock - I was reminded of the beauty and the detail of plumbing.  The fact that I know that in 2004, a toilet pan changed from an 8 Litre flush to a 7 Litre flush to save water.  I know from bitter experience only to use brass screws to fasten the cistern back to the wall, I know that after 4 years the silicone sealant begins to eat into PVC pipework and leaks will appear.   I remember reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and being surprised that it was actually about Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.  Although modern plumbing tries to make things simpler with push fit connectors and flexible joints, water will always find a way - you can only ever do a job if you have the skills to put right any damage that you are likely to do.  The nut that holds the pipe in place will either turn or sheer, there is no middle ground.  So I have my first chapter to write and some toilets to repair.