In parallel with awaiting feedback on Assignment 2 and starting on Assignment 3, I am preparing the ground for Assignment 4. 

For context, the overall timeline for my SYP publication, per Assignment 2 submission, is as follows:

  • September 2020
    • Set up crowdfunding campaign
    • Promote crowdfunding campaign
  • October 2020
    • Complete crowdfunding campaign
    • Build virtual exhibition
    • Design printed catalogue
    • Promote forthcoming exhibition/publication
  • November 2020
    • Launch virtual exhibition (mid-month)
    • Order printed publications
    • Continued promotion
    • Artist’s talk(s)
  • December 2020
    • Send out printed catalogues
    • Ongoing maintenance:
      • user-generated content (see Audience Engagement section)
      • respond to feedback
      • tweak virtual exhibition if necessary
  • January 2021
    • Send out printed catalogues
    • Close virtual exhibition (mid-month)
    • Collate audience feedback to feed into future projects

However, there are a few other things I can be doing in September that I hadn’t included in the above plan when it was submitted to my tutor.

The two main things I’ve done as foundations for the rest of the plan are:

  1. Build a microsite for the project as part of my existing personal website
  2. Start promoting the project (and by extension the funding campaign and the virtual exhibition) on Instagram

Website

Whilst I have had Remembering Forgetting as a project within the Projects section of my website (and linked from the homepage) for a while, the standard ‘project’ page format that is the site platform’s default is a little limited for my developing requirements. I want there to be a ‘landing page’ for the project as a whole that can, over the next couple of months, grow to contain different kinds of content and/or links, not just a gallery of images:

  • Artist statement / intro to the work
  • Crowdfunding summary and links
  • Link to virtual exhibition when live
  • Gallery of (sample) images
  • Feedback form / request for catalogue form

To this end I have set up a new Remembering Forgetting page on the site (still also accessible via the Projects menu, so as not to create a conflicting navigation structure).

This page currently contains:

  • A ‘coming soon’ promotional image for the virtual exhibition
  • Intro text
  • Gallery of images

The page is directly accessible via its own web address (although this redirects to the landing page on the existing robtownsend.com site):

rememberingforgetting.com

This is the web address that I will promote for the project from now on.

Instagram

Up until earlier this summer I had been using my main Instagram account (@robtownsend) for non-OCA photography, predominantly daily abstract doodles. I recognised a few months ago that this approach risked diluting or confusing my Instagram use if I started trying to promote my OCA body of work on the same account.

Rather then set up a new account for the OCA work I decided to keep the existing account (I have about 400 followers) and move the non-OCA work to a new spin-off account. I have put up a few OCA work posts up on my main account in the intervening months, mainly to create some ‘clear blue water’ between the old and new account subject matter, but I have not used the account for specifically promoting Remembering Forgetting as an exhibition or publication… until now.

I have posted up a ‘coming soon’ announcement with four images: the cover image, a sample image, a virtual installation shot and a magazine mockup.

All four feature the same ‘hero’ photo of the leather glove on the pavement. At this early stage I don’t mind heavily using this particular image as I want to establish a certain level of recognition through repetition, before I introduce other images from the set.

I will generally use the Instagram account for three distinct types of post:

  1. Selected images from the series
  2. Promote the crowdfunding campaign
  3. Promote the virtual exhibition itself once live

Next steps

I need to start using Twitter for similar kinds of post in the near future.

I also need to reactivate my Facebook photography page, which I had been using for business purposes until I closed my photography business down last year. The page is, I hope, still archived and maintains its followers. I’ll soon find out.