This time, further from home and knowing fewer people on this section of the coast I will be camping about half of the time. Last week my pop-up tent arrived from Filthy Fox Festival Gear in a fetching shade of plum, an improvement on the alternative choice: a Cath Kidson style flowery version of the same model. These tents pop up dramatically, good when you're exhausted, but warnings about the impossibility of popping them down again has necessitated a rehearsal camping overnight in the back garden of friends (thank you Moi+Cath). And courtesey of an online instruction video and lots of help, I am now proficient at re-packing it. Yesterday I visited an outlet of the National Balloon Association to buy long skinny ones to build a large blow-up bicycle at a Breathe Easy group beach event on the Isle of Wight. They look like a pile of worms and prove impossible to blow up with one's own breath. They will require a pump which somewhat defeats the purpose of the exercise. And it extends the metaphor of breath-created balloon sculptures in the direction of supplementary oxygen.
"Airwall" Interactive audience project during exhibition Drawing Breath Recycle: Maps and Journeys (2008 at Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable, now touring)
"Community Lungs" Conquest Hospital, end of day 9 April 2009
Recent research trials suggest that when oxygen is given to lung disease patients, it works better when mixed with helium, rather than the "room air" which is currently used. Interesting high frequency soundscapes can be anticipated on respiratory wards if this is adopted as standard practice.
