The doors are now open.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

lostfound exhibition going up

Here are some pix of our show going up. It's such a good feeling when its all on the wall. From here its all about chance and fate.

Announcing Soap-2-Go.

Soap-2-Go is the mobile extension to this blog. It's an immediate feed coming through from a location where the instant nature of the photo and its exhibit is part of process. The process of immediate and disposable art culture is a fascinating study. Today, the digital capture of something artistic for the sake of record or for the sake of a bolt of creative need or drive seems effortless. Images are captured as we are traditionally accustomed to - momentarily define or state who we are or where we have been or what we have witnessed.

Yet millions of these digital captures remain dormant. There is this universal process left undeveloped. Unfulfilled. A mass flash of inspiration embedded in a silicon desert of CCD's amounting to nothing more than a moment's departure into a curiosity. Not one to let these moments of inspiration escape, Soap-2-go is a blog concept created to allow the inspiration to flow beyond the minimal landscape of the device itself. Its a portal into the unknown. The democracy of art, its freedom, its availability to each of us, to inspire and ignite emotive reactions, to whatever the scale, is the experiment behind Soap-2-Go.

Enjoy.

The art of the apology.

Yesterday evening I was on my way to an event in the heart of London. It was a dramatic evening. The rain was torrential. Small flash floods were not uncommon throught the south of England.
I made the decision to park the car in Chiswick and take the tube in to the city to avoid possible traffic tie ups and congestion snares. £4.30 (return) to travel in the evening, post prime travel time, and only about two miles. I went to pay for my ticket, passed through the gates and then was shocked to discover that my side of the platform was closeed due to construction works.

"CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION. SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE".

Well. The inconvenience was that this sign SHOULD have been placed directly beside the ticket kiosk so I could have thought of an alternative plan. It was not. I understand that construction requires the closing down of a platform. What I don't understand is the logic of having the sign posted in a place that you see only once past the gates -- and I was not the only one who experienced this.

Ok, thought I. One stop in the other direction to Acton and then cross the tracks to the other side and take the Picadilly line directly into to Earl's Court. Change there and off to Olympia.

While on the platform there was an announcement made ---

"The District Line is approaching Earl's Court and will be 11 minutes late. WE ARE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY HAVE IN YOUR JOURNEY."

11 minutes passed by. Still no train. No follow up announcement either. 35 minutes later a train arrives.

I finally arrive at my event - an hour late.

Later that evening I am on the way back to Chiswick on the return tube. Somewhere between Turnham Green and Chiswick we are stopped. Its not at a station so we cannot get out. We wait. We wait. We wait. Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen.

"We are experiencing a slow train service due to a train ahead taking slower than normal to leave the station. WE APOLOGISE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE TO YOUR JOURNEY".

I understand delays. I understand construction. I understand slow trains stalling the path of other trains. What I do not understand is the art of the apology.

Why I don't understand it is because it has no value. No one is going to give the travellers who were with me that day our time back. Our missed moments we spent waiting when we could have made alternative travel arrangements if the information would have been properly delivered.

The 11 minute delay turning into a 35 minute wait is the one which really highlights my argument. With all the technology in CCTV and computer analysis and tracking systems we fund through the absolutely expensive public transport fares we pay in London one would think that there would be the OPTION announcements could provide so that travellers could change their travel plans. Had I known that I had a 35 minute wait in total - and that was just to go the OTHER direction first due to the construction at the departure station, so add on another fifteen minutes to travel back -- in 50 minutes I could have walked the 2 miles or gone back to the car and made the attempt to drive in and wait out the time in the congestion - if there even was any.

The art of the apology is in my mind an excuse for laziness. Its an empty excuse. In my business it would be like bringing only one camera to the job and when it breaks down saying to the client "we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused in the process of your job".

No doubt there are natural things that happen. The driver of the return train had no idea that we would run into another train stuck at the station. I understand that. What I cannot understand is why information is not communicated to the public in a manner that alternatives can be made, and instead the limp apology serves as etiquette. I don't know about you, but I rather have practicality over and above etiquette.

This is not an essay on a train journey which went a bit sour. Its about the art of the apology and what we accept it is allowed to excuse. I would love to know your points of view or your own experience.

Untitled 171106

Untitled 161106

Gallery information

Our exhibition is now live on the web.

Here.

Untitled 151106.1 | Untitled151106.2

Untitled 151106.3

The Sony Ericsson k800i moby is unbelievable. Hope to spend a bit of time a day showing off what one can do with it.

Location of Private Party - Post Private View

Those attending our private view --- we are heading off to Le Vie En Rose next door. This photograph gives you a feel for the space - very warm and intimate and with amazing French food. It's a real catch and we are lucky to have it right next door to the gallery.

You can never leave enough time.

The deadline is approaching. It's getting all a bit anxious. We are now sending out the invites and dropping off the promotional material wherever we think will have reaching power. But our prints are not done yet. First the lab had its machine breakdown. Now our printer is sick. Poor thing. BUT --- Not done yet means the framer is now put in a difficult situation. It's getting hot in here.

But I love this. It's about just believing it will be all fine. And it will.

If you get a chance to ever have an exhibition - DO IT! .......Its a thrill.

SUCCESS AT THE CARPHONE WAREHOUSE

My previous blog was premature. No later than I hit the "Publish Post" button I receive a call. It IS the CPW.

A "saga" they called it. My poor experience with their service line. I am compensated to a matter in which I feel is very, very fair.

Thank you CPW.

Regarding my frustration with their length of time in responding. My letter had so many points which needed investigating. So they did that. And they needed to arrange for the authorisation of my compensation.

The story here is to never, ever give in to large business just because you believe it's simply "the way things work". And never feel you cannot complain to the highest level of a company. This is the second CEO I've written to. If you feel you are not treated appropriately then make the company accountable via a letter detailing your experience. I find this can be time consuming, but always worth it. There is a win/win on both sides. Granted the CPW took more time then I am accustomed to for a voice to let me know that something is in the works. The AA for instance took one day to solve an issue. Ikea took three days. Natwest took about a week. The key here, in my opinion, is to have a voice available as quickly as possible to let you know that you are being served. Automated response has a short shelf life.

Bigger picture is that there has been winning for both sides. The Carphone Warehouse has learned via my detailed letter who and what stores and call centers are performing under par and will be able to train those individuals in a better manner. And for my work of spending the time noting the weak points in their systems I am compensated.

I love business when it finally works out. It just takes a bit of work at times to get there.

If I were CEO....

Update on the Carphone Warehouse.

Nil.

A three page letter outlining the complete inconsistency of service and knowledge regarding my recent experience and transactions with the CPW has to this date had no result. This was not a letter to a dark hole in the ground customer service dept. but a letter right to the CEO himself - Mr. Dunstone - and the results are... well hold on --- there are no results. It has been over three weeks and two follow up requests from myself and I have had not one person write or call to let me know how they are proceeding. I recognised that I have wasted over 13.5 hours "working" to be a customer of theirs and in my letter detailed all the time and the events which that time involved.

As a business person myself I recognise the importance of customer service and customer loyalty. To date the CPW has come up very very short on this. I always achieve a point or victory for the "faceless" customer when big business has erred or created through their systems, a pathway in which to get the product to me wasted too much time. Whether a large bank, a telephone company, a financial insurance company, the Royal Post, Ikea... I have always made my argument and won my argument. The key issue here is there has always been a dialogue. I find it absolutely ironic that a company dealing with communication tools such as mobile phones and landline services and yet ... wait for it....THERE IS NO ONE WHO CALLS TO TALK TO YOU!!!! They send out an immediate automated email when you write the CEO saying "all matters require investigation" but at the three week plus mark and not a sound since the ebot I am beginning to wonder where this is all going.
This company is so poor at its communications - both internally as well as externally- it is appalling.

Finding your groove

I think I have found a system which works for me. By system I mean a way of deploying my own efforts towards achieving a goal or series of goals. I am in the end an eight week person.

I've worked very hard at uncovering this about myself. I've always had ambition and a desire to go at it alone - as a leader - but found that when having to go out and nip away at creating the steps to success I would find that I held a short attention span towards the tasks I was pursuing. I am an ideas guy. Maintenance and administration of a task or goal are what I was challenged with. Until I found out I was an eight week person.

As an eight week person, I now carry a journal which houses only eight weeks within it. Once the eight weeks are done I begin a new book. This has allowed me to see the end in site, so to speak, and with that I can maintain a consistent workflow and inspiration. Even if the idea or concept is not completed within eight weeks, let's say its an ongoing project, chopping into eight week segments gives it a measurable quality which I can analyze and measure my success within. I can see eight weeks with quite a clarity. Its my graduated cylinder of time.

I am now about to begin my third round of my eight weeker. This is the last week of my second then - or as I denote it - 8.2. Next week will be 1.3.... and so it goes.

The fun part to the eight weeker is that I also have a reward built into the end of the series. So for instance in this second series I have managed to make some very good strides forward to the business due to the program and my dedication to it, so I gave myself a year long gym membership at my dream gym. So at the end of the eight weeks there is a reward scheme. It makes life and running your own business much more fun.

I have also discovered that I am a 60 hour per week person. As I chart my hours that I log into the business I find that I am most comfortable working 56 to 60 hours of work. This is true time... meaning if I take an hour out for lunch, or go do some domestic errands in the middle of the day, that these times are not logged into the work day. So the discipline is to log in ONLY anything related to the efforts made at building a business. Each week I calculate the hours per day I am building the business and i find that there is an average of 60 hours per week.

I also enjoy working from 7 - 12. So all the tasks that require focused attention are scheduled there. Things that are more mundane or not requiring a focused mind are scheduled for 1 until about 5 and then after a supper break I can find myself happy to be in research mode and admin mode from 7 onwards. So a lot of research happens at home after 7. Reading art books, sourcing the internet, attending lectures --- after 7.


Its been a thrilling exercise discovering how and where one is most efficient with their time. Finding the groove has been a very very successful experiment and if you have the opportunity and willingness to do some interpretation and exploration in this field I highly recommend it.