Making The Show
It’s hard to explain this process. The logistical plotting, mapping scheduling and budgeting of it all went through many a stage. It’s tiring just to remember it, let alone write about it much. The problem hinged on moving – Charlie was moving from Norway to Brussels, I was moving – everything as it turned out – home, office, studio, life. The vital thing about collaborating in a meaningful and effective way is to plan in lots of gaps, so as to allow ideas to develop over time. Charlie makes stuff like flight cases in proper workshops using all his tools and machines. But where would that be? Where indeed was I? And where could we then take the flight cases to rehearse and test them out? And all this on a budget, to boot. In the end he set up his workshop outside Brussels in a town called Soignes. I went there a few times, we discovered that sales assistants in builders merchants are as grumpy in Belgium as anywhere else in Europe, the lunch was far better in Ikea, and Belgian graphic design is utterly inspiring. My arms got a bit longer lugging all the fittings and props to Brussels in wheely cases on Eurostar. We did a lot of Skyping. It was all good.
