After the minor impasse in week 6 of wondering what to make, we can turn that around. Things got stuck by putting image making first, as if that needed to be primary. But that’s silly (and just one of those small moments where it is easy to get stuck trying to solve a problem because it started from one point – what to film – whereas if you begin again from a different point the problem dissolves).

The problem is not what to film. The problem is what to list. And, as we saw with the first ontographs, there’s no reason it can’t be words to begin with. For example, Monique is interested in dogs, and we chased our tails (couldn’t resist) wondering how to film this so it wasn’t just, well, happy dog snaps. What I’d do, certainly have done by Wednesday, is to write propositions about dogs. Aim for at least 30. Each proposition should be a short statement. It might be a fact, “all domestic dogs have wolves as their genetic parents”, “there is evidence of human coexistence with dogs from [insert the year]”. They could also be about dog behaviour, dogs and their sense of smell, what they can hear, what they can see, famous stories of dog heroics (crossing continents to get home, etc). It is, simply, a list. It isn’t a narrative. These might still become videos, but for now if you write out the propositions then this list can become a prompt for what to film. Even if they end up being videos of dogs in parks the listing that will run under neath this lets the work become an ontographic, faceted, documentary about dogs and (people, the human, domestication).

So, if you were stuck (remembering everyone can begin making so on Wednesday we see if it is working or not) write out specific, individual propositions. And on Wednesday we’ll use those for step one.