Few days of CHI

My past few days in Chicago have been ultimately, amazing. Here are some rambles. Firstly, today I went to the AREA advisors meeting. This is the meeting that resembles something that C.A.a.D. puts on. An autonomous discussion of many peoples visions of what AREA could be in the future, and kind of abandoning the reality of what AREA is and it’s immediate needs. Now, I of all people, should understand why organizations such as AREA and CAaD do that. In reality, I feel that it ends up being like that because there is a certain vulnerability to people’s needs/feelings because of the currency these projects work on – voluntary time. It’s a different currency that makes you feel like you’ve achieved so much more because you’ve achieved it with family and jobs an’ all! SO, when it comes to criticising a project that its something you’ve reared and brought up and nurtured, it’s harder to let someone run with ideas that suggest that you’re ideas where okay but not as good as theirs. I have arrived at a strange time with AREA as they are trying to change their management structure. It has been 5 years of awesome work. Naturally, there are visions, and audiences that they haven’t achieved yet. Their new ideas of what the next 5 years of AREA could be are ambitious and, if really desired, they will have to drastically change their status and finance systems. Is this really worth it? Readership-ability is something that I – personally – think that they need to change in order to not alienate their potential audiences, thus move forward. But I also understand that they shouldn’t patronise the audience, either. They need to reflect the shifting change in ideology and change some articles (not all) into more concise language. The website became a big factor. Some want it as an archive, others want it as more blog instant cover on issues and topics of Chicago. I’m like, yo, Twitter and Facebook. Money isn’t an issue and you have the potential to really engage and gain a bigger audience without costing you a penny. Organizational structures were a great thing to observe. These are something that I’m going to take back to Sheffield for CAaD and CAKE with me. Outside of AREA, I attended the “Accidental Publics” symposium at the School Institute of Art, Chicago where they got a few speakers to talk of art rhetoric surrounding some awesome public, social art projects in the Mid-West.