after a hectic few weeks in denmark with the installation let ME go, i’m now resting in exeter (after giving a couple of lectures at the wonderful dartington college which is sadly to close at the end of this academic year). when i say resting … i’m trying to work out a simple way to add a guestbook to the let ME go web site, & because today is friday i’m watching – via web cams in UpStage – the set up of the installation at ikast library. it’s spending a week in each of 4 small-town public libraries in west jutland, denmark. first week was struer, then holstebro, today ikast & next friday skjern. on the web cam i’m seeing a procession of ladders and changing light states, as antonella, frederik and others reconstruct the underworld. i’m a theatre practitioner & my work is almost always live, so this installation has been something of a new experience for me. actually it is in many ways still “live” – i’m spending a lot of time in the UpStage part of the installation, interacting with online visitors. but the physical installation is intended to be able to be left for visitors to experience on their own. this has given us a lot of challenges around how to ensure that people get something close to the intended experience, & i have more understanding of the plight of digital artists whose work goes into galleries & gets left unattended – for computers to freeze or crash – & how to work out what is the appropriate amount of information & instruction for the visitors. for instance i’ve learned that a sign saying “no entry without lamp” in danish, will not always deter lampless danes from entering – yet “you must take off your shoes” is very rarely ignored. but … why is it that even “simple” guestbooks are not actually simple … ?