I might be done with drink
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Monday - 6am
I might be done with alcohol.
We spent the weekend with family in London which often leads to reflection and my first one upon waking today is that perhaps I don’t need alcohol anymore. I drank two and a half pints throughout the whole day yesterday and two the day before. Not a lot, but much more than I normally consume and I clearly no longer possess the knack.
It has been a trip of big ideas, I spotted a sign in a restaurant on the first night which carried the words “ORDER HERE”. The world is filled with this sort of neon instruction and I have decided I want to make a photo series about them.
The more I look, the more of these signs I seem to find and the more I realise that our lives are populated by imperatives we carry out at the behest of a plastic box with a light in it or an ornate loop of glowing glass.
So that’s the next project. If you can think of good examples, let me know. I’d love to go get more.
The rules, because there have to be rules, are that it must be an instruction and it must be illuminated. We saw a neon sign on the bus that said “you deserve new shoes” which I was initially bummed I missed, until I realised it was only an observation or suggestion, not an instruction. Same with the one at Breakfast Club, Gatwick. The sign there says “today is going to be a good day”. A projection or aspiration. Not an instruction. It’s a great sign though. Brewdog has a good one next door too, “Beer with Altitude”. I wanted to include a sign that read “EXIT” as it was a verb, but my Co-Creative Director Alice has blocked this one on the grounds that it’s not telling you to do it. “EXIT NOW” or “EXIT THROUGH GIFT SHOP” would be acceptable.
Sissu Lu encouraged me to start a project when we spoke last year related to my frequent air travel, and Amy Elizabeth has me thinking about and making self portraits. I’d love to hear if any guests have inspired you. That’s one of the great gifts of speaking to creative people all the time. Ideas bounce around and influence one another, especially if you feel as I do that creativity is “a way of operating”.
If you’d like help finding that way of operating, give me a shout. I’m a project manager. I can help you out.