Following the governmental ruling that the universities and studios had to close amid the post-Christmas covid boom, I had to take a step back from the work I was doing and re-evaluate. The future was in turmoil… would I ever be able to get back into the studios? Would I be able to see my vision out to completion? Only time would tell, but alas, I did not have time on my side. I had to carry on into the great unknown and to do that I had to change my plans. Theatrics aside, despite having my studio practice essentially ready to film, after Christmas I had to make some serious changes to my final project to make sure I’d be able to carry on making it if we never got back into the studios.

So much of what interests me, and establishes the context of my work are the stylistic and aesthetic choices of children’s media. Complex educational ideas condensed into simple and easy-to-follow/imitate actions. Repetition, bright colours; didactic actions, easy to identify characters and movements.

I thought I could use those areas of inspiration to create a narrative within the visual language of the genre. I’m not trying to criticise or comment on these ideas, just play with them. Mindless action, understanding without asking for clarification. Learning, teaching, etc etc. there’s an irony in the supposed simplicity of the actions I’m using – mimicking facial expressions as if to learn when to be happy or how to be sad. Clapping and stamping to create rhythms you can get lost in, but also to help teach the audience how to pay attention (like Simon says), and so on and so forth. It’s all the same ideas that underpinned the work I was doing in ‘welcome to TV land’ but articulated in a hypnotic, calculated way. Almost like a music video, or a short segment between shows. An advert for what could be coming next; something you already knew. Infinite regression; turtles all the way down.