Dear Sam and Lynn

An outline of my unrealised project: It is called Insurgent, (2005) and was intended as a site/context specific work that was to be my piece for my MA show. Essentially, it requires an institutional space, within other institutional spaces. For instance an office, in a building of offices, a studio within a studio block etc... (In this instance it was a project space within a large art school.) These sites should possess a standard overhead lighting network throughout the premises. Once a suitable space is found, the lighting system in one room/office/studio would be disabled, and then be rewired to a portable generator that would provide the right amount of electricity to power them as before.

This was proposed at my college, professional electrician was booked to carry out all the rewiring and return it to its original state after the show, the generator approved, and a certificate of safety produced. After two months of correspondence, with those in support of it and those putting up opposition, it was declined.

I suppose there was an attempt (if not to gain, at least reference), autonomy. I didn't want to change the space, or even alter it much visually, but wished to work with the one of the non-physical attributes of the building - its power supply. As I began to think about it in architectural and conceptual terms, it became apparent that there was a political dimension to the work, as electricity is paid for and thus 'owned' by private or corporate bodies.

The title of the work suggests a confident and polemical piece, but highlights the paradoxes of 'needing' the Institute's permission in order to subvert it. For me, the project exists in a state of awkwardness, waiting for permission, between the accepted and the subversive.

If you are interested in including this unrealised project for your website, it would be apt, as it is a non-visual work, that can clearly be accessed through receiving the information about the piece. Again, it would be in the hands of someone else to give it the go ahead, and the fact that it needs electrical power (i.e. a computer and internet connection) to access it - would be a nice touch.

All the best,
Cameron Irving