other/other/other

Well, it's been a while, but we've done the Unit 5 weekender and been interviewed by Future Radio, and have all come away from it happy and tired and feeling like we've done something new and challenging. More details in a later post when I've gone through all the documentation…

Here are the books! We posted them off this afternoon.

We have just spent the last two evenings folding 150 pieces of A4 paper into tiny booklets. Dot and I have decided to take advantage of the relatively cheap publicity method that is Talenteers East networking zine. We have made 'The Little Book of Other/Other/Other' with scissors and glue and a little bit of photocopying sponsorship from Norwich Arts Centre. It contains our manifesto and beautiful handcrafted cards from each of our members, somewhat flattened and contrasted by the photocopier. We'll put the designs up on our website (and here), once we've scanned them all. It's very lo-fi, but very satisfying when they're all piled up in front of you, waiting to go out into the wild…

Dot/Holly meeting 11am-5pm Friday 18th July

Issues Discussed:

1. New Collaborations Bursary:

It’s important not to lose sight of our personal collaboration when working on the other/other/other collective: we must present our Mall Survey recordings in another space to see how they interact, and also make a new, shorter and more specific route using the information gathered from our existing piece. I suggested the sloped anti-slip lower entrance. We will be working collaboratively for the Unit 5 event in August, as well as developing our own work.

2. Anglia Square redevelopment:

Time frame researched, and management and developers contact details found. Idea of celebrating the last days of the 1960s architecture before the demolition starts in 2009.

We need this to be a curated event: not necessarily everyone in other/other/other. We would put forward a Grants for the Arts application with a few specific commissions in mind, having discussed it thoroughly with the group beforehand.

Practical Workshop:

I showed Dot how to make a contact mic, which we then played with. It was nice to share skills, and felt a little bit like a knitting circle for sound artists. We also discussed Michael Ridge (a member of other/other/other) and his electromagnetic sounds, and I showed Dot a telephone pick up coil, and we spent a while playing with the sounds generated by the internal whirrings of a CD player, a printer, and a table lamp. I found an old electromagnet/bit of a radio that was in a bag of miscellaneous electrical bits I bought at a carboot sale, and worked out how to wire it up so that it made the same sounds as the commercial one. Stereo noises! I could take these around shopping malls plugged into my minidisc recorder and do a low-budget version of Christina Kubisch’s e-legend.

Saturday 19th July, very late

We pulled out the pick-up coil and minidisc in the pub and made great sounds from Dot’s phone. It’s a good thing to have in your handbag.

Battled through the wind and rain, leaving the Sonic Arts Network Expo behind me in Brighton on Monday morning, to get to the next meeting at 6pm.

I made it in time, and we had a great meeting. Some of last month's attendees couldn't make it, but we got three new faces and a lovely moment when a nearby cafe customer came over to say that he'd seen Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra in the 1960s.

We've got all kinds of plans, starting with a two day collaborative exploration of a space, which will be open to the public at all times. For more information please check the website, which may get updated more regularly than this…

Holly