1. responding to the object.
the object in itself feels irrelevant to my response. I am responding in one way to the need to offer support and friendship. Whilst this seems initially generous my physical response in so far as I am physically here is also motivated by the need to develop relationships that may lead to personal development.

2. Whilst I feel that my response is individual I am conscious that I am part of a large crowd, a blunt instrument. Whilst I object to grandising the object by increasing the size of the audience I am still conscious that I am drawn to its presence as an opportunity for unique interaction emotionally and phyically with others.
I was in Paris last week visiting the Mona Lisa, the experience of visiting it is more powerful than the experience of veiwing the painting itself, this is how I feel about the object. My father whilst being the most conventional person I know, spoke about being an individual and not part of what was going on around him as crowds streamed around the painting. I feel that we all feel like this but as relatively unevolved creatures we are drawn together.

3. I travelled here from a previous appointment with someone that felt the need to impress and this was the reason I used. I travelled here by car using the sat nav which took me the worst possible way through bad slow traffic which created some anxiety and at one point led me to consider giving up and going home. It almost didn't feel worth it.

4. My response to the object is as an individual within a group dynamic. This imbues the object with power by the collective response. The protagonists that hold the additional information about the object or control the object are viewed by the collective consciousness as to be the leaders of the project, setting them apart from the collective.

Drawing together the individual and focusing minds on one purpose either positive or negative is a political and commercial mechanism for control. By participating in the project I am subjugating my individuality to the object. The examples are obvious; race, nation, toothpaste.

Damien Hurst experimented with this notion with For the Love of God, whilst heavily critised, this seemed an important discussion of our need as individuals to be drawn to a collective purpose.

5. Fear and the object

the additonal information given relating to the lead content imbues the object with further power by introducing a sublimianal level of fear in the individual that we can all relate to as a group. Fear is the most powerful tool of control. This is not an innocent object.

POST SCRIPT : I have been extremely interested and inspired by this experiment and my opinions are entered here in good faith as a contribution to the collective discussion and are in no way meant to be interpreted as a critic. I feel that the project has been set up to allow for free debate.

My lack of enthusiasm for not wanting or needing to see the object is not deliberately obtuse; i genuinely feel that the object itself is irrelevant to the processes that have been created around it and my response to it.

As an artist i struggle to find clear understanding of how my own work can inspire a collective response and this project has helped me to define some of my objectives. Whilst we are individual we do share common experience. We may share an experience as a group but we respond to it uniquely as individuals. We should always be wary of any dogma that attempts to celebrate the collective consciousness at the expense of the individual.

Essential Reading - 'Crowd & Power by Elias Canetti'