At three o clock last night I suddenly had an idea. Perhaps I should contact a few schools and colleges, especially ones I have a link with from my exam work and suggest that they run the Media in the Mix concept as an induction assignment for their media and multi media students. Of course I got all excited and even envisaged a Media in the Mix trademark as the whole idea of media reflection boxes gets embedded in media studies.
The first day of the seminar also gave me a chance to reflect on what to do if I cannot get enough participants. I have foolishly tried to persuade my "friends" to get move involved with my project. I have done this cos really they are the heart of my idea and I thought if I could answer all their questions their resistance would melt, but it did not. I started out as a single white parent with a black child over 20 years ago and they did this journey with me so of course I wanted them to share it with me. I thought that they were on board and that it would be a great excuse for four women to get together and reminisce. Instead it has turned contentious and I have plain given up on my friends. Clearly there is something about the research that they do not want to engage in. I don't know what I would have done if I had realised this before I applied for the Masters as their support had encouraged me in my application, it was not full blown or in depth, just there. But now apart from the third friend who delivered immediately and without questions my "friends" input is very limited. But when I gave my seminar presentation in which I acknowledged that I hit problems, my tutor handed me another approach. I could go back to my own experience and really build on that. As a result I have decided that I will try and do somekind of installation that involves my video, the video I did with my friend and then take it from there.
I have also managed to negotiate something with my local library that is not quite what I started with but will add to my knowledge.
Seminar was inspirational. This time I enjoyed all the presentations and it was really interesting to listen to the ideas of my colleague students and see how they organise their work. There are some very impressive ideas out there and I appreciated the thoughtful input of the tutors. I also came across absolute resistance. Not the first time on this research. Some white people bristle and say I do not see difference, some mixed people bristle and say, I am not black and I bristle when I think people are being prejudiced. I have to bite my tongue and remember sometimes help comes from unexpected places so not too feel too alienated and judgemental at this point. Three people have also said that what help they can give me they will so I need to follow up on that right now.