Following some email discussions with Lucia, I proposed to bring together a small group for a discussion about Free*Space, people who might have an interest in such a practice, and might see it as something of benefit to their own work.
The group included Pauline Goggin, a socially engaged artist from Limerick, Kate O' Shea, a socially engaged artist and currently an MA student at LSAD, Lucia and myself. The meeting took place in Old School,
In many ways this conversation was just about introducing people to one another. However, it was also a further stage in the discussion between Lucia and myself about how Free*Space might fit into Old School. Through the discussion it became clear that an open access free space might pose some challenges in terms of the use of the building. Through the discussion the following position emerged:
The first stage of Free*Space, which will unfold over a period of time leading up to a 2019 event, might best take the form of a series of dialogues. I will take responsibility for opening the space, documenting the event, and ensuring that material needs are covered, also for making some kind of online representation of the events afterwards. The event could be represented by other participants in other ways; ownership is not an issue.
The actual content of the conversation could be 'curated' by anyone who is interested, so every conversation could serve multiple agendas. In this way the conversations would be shared productions, co-authored, that could lend themselves to other people's research. They would also work towards building a network that might contribute towards the shaping of more open Free*Space events in the not too distant future, building towards a public event over 12 days in 2019. That's one of the ways that they would be part of my research.