It's the end of the second day of the conference and everyone has left the seminar room to go and witness/participate in the musical activty in the cellar bar. I am taking the opportunity to quickly write before heading back downstairs. There has been much discussion of A Good Night Out in the Valleys and having access to so many different minds and opinions is invaluable to my research. When i get back I will arrange to meet up with Roger and Anwen before…

The last part of the first day of the conference is spent in small groups generating research proposals and questions. The subject of the project is the 1943 Propaganda film Silent Village. Our group is charged with the task of generating a research methodology and three questions using 'Place' as a starting point for research.

Andrew applies his extensive research skills and uses his Iphone to access…

A weird kind of lethargy has been overtaking me recently. These last two days at least. Something to do with nights becoming confused with days and the lots and lots of travelling during the last two weeks. There is more to come next week. I will be going to Gregynog near Newtown for a University conference. I am going to speak for 5 minutes about the project. What to say?!?! And on Thurday Carl and I are going to go the…

Poppy and I swam again today. We accidentally crashed a children's birthday party in the pool. I think we both realised after about half an hour and chose not to share the information with one another for fear that one or the other might make us leave and swim in the colder water of the Plas Crug main pool. We bought chocolate chip muffins and made a mushroom soup. The days are now much brighter and sharper and the…

It turns out that the reason that we didn't meet up with Karl yesterday was because he fell down the side of the Wawel and got run over by a passing car. He is ok...

The following entry is a record of a visit to the Oriel Davies gallery in Newtown. I travelled with Tina and…

We lost Karl at the Wawel. He ran ahead to set up the crowning shot of his film and we didn't see him again. We were only moments behind him. We searched the Wawel and in the end we had to jump in a taxi and head to the airport. Hopefully he didn't wait too long. It feels like the fitting end to a film. A metaphor for his struggle to save Krakow.…

Last night ended with the feeling that we we might have escaped with our lives. The Girl, Katia, was a little keen. Very keen infact. Her boyfriend seemed very accommodating. Patient possibly. They didn't understand the concept behind the band when I showed them a video on the internet. There was something that really didn't feel right in that place. Her lank haired boyfriend repeatedly putting his hand to her face in a…

"You'd better run, you'd better take cover". Sam pushes the camera up close into Karl's face. His cigarette burning low, ash about to drop on the table. The cafe has equivalence with Nancy's cafe in Ystrad Mynach. Carl talks about being your own tour guide. He is interrupted by the Nokia ring tone. A thick layer of smoke that is somehow comforting. Strange really as I find smoking abhorrent. Smoke indoors has become an…

Over dinner in yet another subterranean restaurant we discuss our motives for the creation of a film/performance/documentary. Earlier Karl called us over to film him dropping change into a beggars cup. Why do this? To show the poverty or to frame himself as the the saviour of Krakow. I am beginning to feel quite emotional. I know that Sam does as well. As much as we fear exploiting the beggar in the street and resist…

Karl has gone to work and Sam and I find ourselves back where we began yesterday when we first arrived in the city. We are next to the new opera house. Karl's tour has recoloured and remapped the landscape and I reflect, as I sit, on Britain and Wales and what, from within, I have taken for granted and missed. You can see the change here. Huge adverts hang from building tops. "Buildings, not billboards" as Karl is so keen…

The city is different at night. The walk up to the Wawel is extraordinary. The Polish understand soft ambient lighting. The architecture, which had seemed barren and grey during the day, is now lit beautifully. The snow fell in larger flakes and Sam was able to gather some footage. A man approached us for an cigarette. A hint of menace gave way to faux camaraderie. Tomorrow we will meet with Karl.…

Sam and I made our way back to the Dizzy Daisy Hostel in the early evening. Sleep overtook us and we happily lost two hours. We awoke refreshed and were again able to speak to one another. We both admitted that we were becoming bored with the sound of our own voices. We made our way back to the Rynek where we found a subterranean Mexican restaurant. The chilli soup was excellent. Again I was assaulted by dill when the…

We spent most of the day wandering the streets of Krakow looking for the story. A Herzogian conceit made us believe, in our naivety, that all we needed to do was to arrive here with a camera and the adventure would begin to unfold. We filmed flapping plastic sheeting and industrial fences. The buildings of Krakow flapped in the bitter breeze as we attempted to capture its architecture, displayed upon the canvas that…

To what extend is our interpretation of a people coloured by the landscape in which we find them? The bleak snow scattered country side on the journey from Balice airport to Krakow shapes my reading of the people. In what ways does this landscape and its history shape their own identity? The south Wales valleys. Full of people and full of life despite circumstance, in spite of the history that those I spoke to were so…