More details of the Peoples History Museum Call Out

Hello everyone
I’m thrilled by how much interest there has been in our call for contributors to our People’s History Museum exhibition next year (the guidelines are pinned above if anyone missed them).

I know lots of loiterers have taken some wonderful photographs of First Sunday dérives over the years and we want to include some of them in the exhibition (we will cover printing costs of digital photos). Please watch out for more details, and in the meantime think about which pictures you would like to share.

There have been a few FAQs so thought I’d answer them here as well in case they are useful to anyone else

We said we want “original” artwork and perhaps we should have said contemporary, as it does not have to be created just for the exhibition, although it can be. To clarify it should be your own original work and relevant to the exhibition themes. If it has been shown / published before that is OK, if it has never been seen by anyone before that is also OK.

Everyone has to fill out an application form because we feel that is the fairest and easiest way to assess entries.  I hope you understand that we can not let friends sneak in as that wouldn’t be right. We want to encourage as many applications as possible and to be transparent in how we deal with them.

If anything in the guidelines is unclear, or you would like to discuss a particular idea do please get in touch with the curatorial team  (loitering2016@gmail.com) or we can have a chat on either of the walks we are organising this weekend for We Shall Overcome (2pm Wilmslow Station on Saturday, 10am Peoples History Museum Manchester on Sunday)

Please do get applications in before the deadline – 7th December - and I'll post details of the First Sunday photo call out very soon

Cheers and thanks as ever for your support

Morag

The LRM at The People's History Museum: Call for Contributions

Loitering With Intent (working title)
Call for Submissions

We are delighted that between July-September 2016 The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) will be curating an exhibition in the community gallery of The People’s History Museum. We want its content to be exciting, inspiring and diverse, reflecting the nature of psychogeography, and so we are inviting applications from anyone who wishes to take part.

We are looking for original art work and archive material that explores any of these themes:

O  Psychogeography (however you choose to define it)

O  Creative walking, walking art and walking as a cultural or political practice

O  Public / private space and the right to the city

O  DIY, creative, activist and other interesting maps and map making

O  The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) and our events

O  Radical, emotional and hidden histories, especially of or linked to Manchester

O  The Situationist International and their legacy

O  Critical geographical responses to urban issues and inequalities such as surveillance, gentrification, homogenisation etc.

Any kind of art or artefact is welcome – photos, prints, painting, drawing, film, audio, sculpture etc. We also have some capacity to include events, performances and walks etc. There will be an accompanying blog and possibly other literature so we welcome writers who wish to contribute as well.  We are very open to new ideas so please do get in touch.

Things to consider:

The Peoples History Museum is family friendly and all work must be suitable for a wide audience. There are also some logistical restrictions due to the nature of the space, more information about this will be provided where relevant.

The majority of the material in the exhibition will be focused on Greater Manchester and the North West but we hope to include some work from farther afield.

You do not have to be a professional artist, and applications from groups / collectives are also welcome.

Previous involvement with The LRM isn’t essential, but we envisage the majority of work featured will have some link, however tenuous. This can include attending, or reacting to, any of our walks or other events or contributing to an online conversation via facebook or twitter.

The LRM is a not-for-profit collective and everyone gives their time for free so we are unable to pay anyone to exhibit. However, we don’t want anyone to be out of pocket or unable to contribute because of expenses so if you need any resources to participate (eg transporting work to the exhibition or to meet access requirements) please let us know and we will do our best to help. We currently have a small budget from previous fundraising and will actively seek more if necessary. Please don’t spend any money on this application without checking with us first.

Please be aware we have limited space so decisions will be made by a panel. We will consider the quality, intent, originally and relevance of every application as well as how it fits within the overall exhibition. We will let applicants know our decision as soon as possible after the closing date.

Background Information

The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) is a Manchester based collective of artists and activists interested in psychogeography, public space and the hidden stories of the city. Formed in 2006 we still can’t agree on what psychogeography means but we all like plants growing out of the side of buildings, looking at things from new angles, radical history, drinking tea and getting lost. We believe there is magick in the Mancunian rain. Our city is wonderful and made for more than shopping. We want to reclaim it for play and revolutionary fun…. On the first Sunday of every month we go for a wander of some sort. These derives, or drifts, help decode the palimpsest of the streets, uncover power structures and discover the extraordinary in the mundane. We also organise occasional festivals, exhibitions and other random shenanigans. These have included building cake maps, playing CCTV bingo, tracing lost rivers and collaborating on projects like Manchester’s Modernist Heroines. Our events are always free and open to everyone.

The People’s History Museum in Manchester is the national museum of democracy.  They aim to engage, inspire and inform diverse audiences by showing ‘There have always been ideas worth fighting for’. This exhibition will take place in The Engine Hall.

How to apply

To apply please complete the pro forma – do not send us your work. You can download the form from http://tinyurl.com/q4dko4m  or you can email loitering2016@gmail.com

The email address to send applications to is loitering2016@gmail.com
The deadline for receipt of applications is noon on Monday 7^th December 2015

For more information

contact Morag Rose  
Email loitering2016@gmail.com  tweet @thelrm or call 07974929589

 

Oh! October! It's going to be fabulous

October is going to be an excellent month for Loitering and I really hope you will be able to join us.

The first weekemd is "We Shall Overcome" Weekend - a show of solidarity and rage against austerity. More details are in the post below. Both wanders will blend radical and secret histories, the blurred lines between public and private space, ghost stories and a bit of dramatic ranting. All events are collecting for local projects supporting people affected by austerity so please bring a donation (canned food, gloves food, etc)

Find us at:
Wilmslow Railway Station 2pm Saturday 3rd October (collection for Food Friends)
Outside The People's History Museum Manchester 10am Sunday 4th October (for The Booth Centre)

 October 15th is The Walking Inside Out Symposium in Sheffield, and a few free tickets remain for this discussion on Contemporary British Psychogeography. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-inside-out-a-psychogeographic-symposium-book-launch-tickets-18204864239

Finally, we are going to finish the month with some great music - not psychogeographical but an excellent night out with Case Hardin at The Britons Protectionhttp://www.wegottickets.com/event/332281

 This is all very excited and I would love to share these special events with you. For more details please contact loiter@hepzombie.co.uk tweet @thelrm

 

Septembers First Sunday

Hello everyone First Sunday This Sunday, and time for a wander. We'll meet 2pm at the glacial erratic on Ardwick Green (near the Apollo, a very short walk from Piccadilly Station, and yes the former gathering point of the Victorian Ardwick Anarchists). All welcome for a fairly unstructured derive and a bit of a blether.

We Shall Overcome in October

We Shall Overcome is a collective howl of rage and love celebrating arts and culture, supporting those affecting by austerity and showing solidarity. http://weshallovercomeweekend.com/ it’s a weekend of beautiful things and I am delighted The LRM are contributing two special walks.

We will be wandering the boundary between public and private space, exploring radical histories, DIY culture, and public/private space. We will uncover the power structures and architecture of fear that works to keep us off the streets and share stories of resistance, solidarity and creative mischief. Expect a wee bit of occult bobbins and rants against inequality and austerity,

On Saturday 3^rd October we venture out of town and take We Shall Overcome to the streets of George Osbourne’s constituency. It’s our first ever trip to Wilmslow and I expect it to be very special. Meet 2pm Wilmslow Railway Station.

Sunday 4^th October is First Sunday of course and so we will be back in Manchester. Meet 10am outside The Peoples History Museum (the early start means no clash with activities around the Tory conference).

Both events are open to everyone. Please bring a donation (long lasting food, socks, gloves, hats – I will post a full list soon). In Manchester we are collecting for The Booth Centre, Wilmslow tbc and I will update ASAP.

Since the earliest iteration of The LRM I have made clear I think there are many psychogeographies and we should relish those diverse blossoms. However that has never implied I think psychogeography is a meaningless term, more that I don’t want to get stuck in semantics.

I passionately believe there has to be an inherent political element – a subversive intention, a desire to walk truth to power, to uncover hidden histories and step towards a better future – to psychogeography. A dérive is more than a leisurely stroll (although that does not make it unpleasureable) it should be unsettling, peculiar and not turn away from contradictions or difficult questions. It should be a creative (re)mapping of imagination and desire, and we should strive to open up and share those cartographic duties so anyone and everyone can feel like our streets belong to us all. This feels more important than ever in an environment that demonises drifting, erodes public space and seeks to enclose and restrict our minds as well as our bodies, It is also never enough, and can only be one tactic, one tool, amongst many that build the cities of our dreams. (As an aside I am so proud to loiter with so many good folk who fight and question and build and work and dream in so many different ways).

Perhaps most importantly of all psychogeography is NOT just a theory, it has to be a practice as well, a living, breathing, panting, messy, contradictory, beautiful, troublesome walking DOING but just talking. This is one of the reasons I am contributing my wanders in October to We Shall Overcome and I would urge other psychogeographers to do the samehy. A dérive is more than a leisurely stroll (although that does not make it unpleasurable) it should be unsettling, peculiar and not turning away from contradictions or difficult questions. It should be a creative (re)mapping of imagination and desire, and we should strive to open up and share those cartographic duties so anyone and everyone can feel like our streets belong to us all. This feels more important than ever in an environment that demonises drifting, erodes public space and seeks to enclose and restrict our minds as well as our bodies. It is also never enough, and can only be one tactic, one tool amongst many that build the cities of our dreams. (As an aside I am so proud to loiter with so many good folk who fight and question and build and work and dream in so many different ways).

Sheffield symposium, October 15th

Dear friends, colleagues and fellow wanderers

I am delighted to invite you to a Psychogeographical Symposium in Sheffield on October 15th 2015  to celebrate the launch of “Walking Inside Out: Contemporary British Psychogeography.”

I’m thrilled so many contributors will be there and I'm especially pleased this is happening in Sheffield as the book is dedicated to Victoria Henshaw whose work is featured.

Full details are as follows:

This special event brings together contributors to "Walking Inside Out: Contemporary British Psychogeography" (Tina Richardson, ed, Rowman and Littlefield International, 2015). Walking Inside Out represents the first attempt to merge the work of literary, academic and artist practitioners to critically explore the state of psychogeography today. It discusses a range of critical and creative walking practices, and how they can be used to investigate everyday life and urban phenomena.
The symposium will include presentations from:
Luke Bennett (Sheffield Hallam University)
Alexander Bridger (University of Huddersfield)
Andrea Capstick (University of Bradford)
Gareth Rees (author)
Tina Richardson (independent scholar, editor)
Morag Rose (University of Sheffield)
Phil Wood (author)


Questions and debate from participants will be very welcome. We want to celebrate the diversity, and discuss the controversies, that inform psychogeography today.


The event will conclude with a wine reception sponsored by Rowman and Littlefield International, and is supported by The Department of Urban Studies and Planning at The University of Sheffield.

Tickets are free but places are limited – please book here to reserve your place:

 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-inside-out-a-psychogeographic-symposium-book-launch-tickets-18204864239 

I really hope you will be able to make it, and my thanks to everyone who has supported the organisation of this event. If you need any more information please don't hesitate to contact. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who may be interested 

My very best wishes

Morag

August First Sunday

Dear Loiterers

Its First Sunday, This Sunday and many loiterers have dispersed far and wide to celebrate Summer elsewhere. Therefore we are going to try something a little bit different, which also means friends who can rarely get to Manchester can join in as well. It’s a First Sunday for anyone, anywhere!

At twelve O’clock on Sunday 2^nd August I will begin to tweet some derive instructions, these will appear for 90 minutes or so and you can see them by checking @lrm If you aren’t on twitter I can text the instructions, if you would like this please make sure I have your phone number by texting me on 079 749 29589.  Please follow the instructions in your own way – they will be open to interpretation and of course you need to take care and be mindful of your environment. It would be wonderful if folk could let me know how it is going by tweet or text but that is, of course, entirely optional.  Because I don’t want to go a month without wandering collectively there will be a chance to share stories, and  go for a walk, on Wednesday 5^th August. Meet in the Sandbar, Grosvenor Street, at 6pm.

There are also several developments in Manchester which are anti-loitering and which you may want to object to. The Camp for Homeless Justice are in court tomorrow fighting an injunction which could potentially criminalise rough sleepers and be used to suppress demonstration and lawful protest. The consultation periods are also open for plans to close the Undercroft on Rochdale Canal at night, and to build some very dull flats on Pomona, a favourite place to loiter. Much has been written about this elsewhere, if you do need more information (or it would be helpful to read my objections) please do get in touch.

I hope to walk with you virtually on Sunday and see you on the streets soon

Best wishes

Morag