Reflections on Bookmobiling

Thanks to all those who came down on Saturday night. I had a lovely time, and really enjoyed chatting to so many people about the project to collaboratively write a utopia set on the abandoned stretch of wasteland between Sneinton and Nottingham railway station (now officially the subject of a bid for planning permission for a Tesco). There definitely seems to be a groundswell of momentum for it at the moment. I'll return to blog about it again shortly, and start posting it as I write it. But where do I post it?...

...I sent an email to Jonathan, Aaron and Harriet from YH485 earlier to see whether they felt the blog should continue to host discussion of the Island utopia project, or whether it should perhaps move to a new home. It's something I'd like to run indefinitely, whilst the Bookmobile had a very definite time-frame. I'm a bit worried that someone coming to the project in 3 months, 6 months or 2 years might be utterly confused by the mention of the Bookmobile. I'm also wary of the project sort of subsuming the Bookmobile Project; although there's a clear relation between them, they're not one and the same and the Bookmobile did so much more than give me the space to start this project.

Thinking about this has made me reflect on Emma Cocker's talk on the nature of the invitation (the first of the talks commissioned by YH485 to co-incide with the Bookmobile). I was invited by YH485 to be their writer in residence, but did I understand their invitation properly? Have I outstayed my welcome by creating some monstrous project that will never be finished? Should I have tried to keep the timeframe of the project? Should I have written about books? But if I did misconstrue the invitation, whose fault is this? Mine? Or YH485's? Perhaps the invitation wasn't clear enough. And does it matter? Or has my misconstrual been productive? Are they glad I didn't do what they wanted me to do? Have I been forgiven now that I'm reflecting on all this in reference to a talk they themselves put on?

Whatever the case, I'd like to say how glad I am that I was invited; how glad I am that I've had the space to start this project; how glad I am that £120 of public funding can somehow trickle down to an anarchistic utopian to embark on a project seeking to challenge capitalism and the state; and how glad I am to have met so many fascinating people whilst doing it. And it's only just beginning...