Author: gileslane

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inspiration news

Outside The Box PlayCubes

We’re now just over halfway through our kickstarter campaign for Outside The Box : a “game engine for your imagination” designed to inspire storytelling and improvise play. We’re trying to raise £4k to manufacture a 1st edition of the complete set to get it into people’s hands and see what they do with it. Its had a slow start but we’re hoping we still may pick up momentum.

Outside The Box has no rules, nothing to win or lose, it simply provides a framework for you to imagine stories and make up your own games. It’s made up of 27 cubes, 3 layers of 9 cubes, each layer being a distinct game : Animal Match, Mission Improbable and StoryMaker. Check out the whole OTB collection of cubes and books on bookleteer.

Animal Match starts out as a puzzle – match up the animal halves to complete the pattern. From there you can make it much more fun : mix the cubes up to invent strange creatures; what would you call them? What would they sound like? How might they move?

Mission Improbable is for role-playing. There are 6 characters: Adventurer, Detective, Scientist, Spy, Storyteller and Superhero, each with 9 tasks. Use them to invent your own games, record your successes in the mission log books or take it to another level by designing your own costumes and props.

StoryMaker incites the telling of fantastical tales : Roll the 3 control cubes to decide how to tell your story, what kind it should be and where to set it. Then use the word cubes as your cue to invent a story on the spot.

Outside The Box began as a side project when illustrator Mandy Tang joined Proboscis. Inspired by the Love Outdoor Play campaign to get more children playing outside, we came up with the idea of using our StoryCube format and our bookleteer self-publishing platform to make a set of cubes that would inspire playfulness. We think its a lovely thing worth getting out into the world – we hope you agree.

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news the periodical

the Periodical issues 11 and 12

theperiodical-augsept2013

After our holiday break in August the Periodical bounces back with issues 11 and 12. I am really proud to present two books made as part of a pilot project I took part in last year in Papua New Guinea:

I was invited by anthropologist James Leach to work with villagers from Reite and Sarangama on PNG’s Rai Coast to test our Diffusion eBook format (using waterproof paper) to devise a simple method for recording and sharing local knowledge in the rainforest. One book is a collection of scanned notebooks made by the villagers, with additional English translations; the other is an overview of the experiment in both Tok Pisin (PNG’s pidgeon lingua franca) and English. Two other books of scanned notebooks by villagers are also available online and to download in the TEK Notebooks Collection

As the overview book explains, our project is to devise a cheap and easy to use toolkit that village people can use to record and share (where desired) not just their Traditional Ecological Knowledge, but their Cultural Knowledge too. A toolkit designed to accommodate the exigencies of the jungle and the rainforest and that, as far as possible, is technology agnostic. These books demonstrate how sheets of widely available waterproof paper can be made into simple booklets that can be written or drawn on as well as having pictures or photos stuck on and can then be scanned and shared online via a platform like bookleteer. Where the hand of a local person is often lost in the recording and transcribing of traditional knowledge, these books show an alternative strategy that can be used to assist people document and share knowledge in their own style and way – not requiring complex technologies on the ground that can fail or get broken because of environment conditions.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We need 28 more subscribers to surpass the ‘break even goal’ of 100 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks created by Proboscis for every new annual subscriber from our back catalogue of projects.

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the periodical

the Periodical issue 10

periodical-july2013
Issue 10 is winging its way to subscribers across the land (and sea and air). This month I have selected another wonderful book by Gair Dunlop – Dispersals – documenting the pathos of an RAF airbase, RAF Coltishall, in the process of its abandonment and closure. Dispersals is the latest in Gair’s ongoing exploration of the “military pastoral complex”. Like his works on Atom Town and Bletchley Park, he captures the romance of residue and impending dereliction whilst concurrently hinting at the industrial scale of human effort that populated and worked these landscapes. His images are full of longing and absence, resignation to their fate, almost as if they had just emerged from a fog of Nepenthe, bringing forgetfulness of all ills.

Browse Gair’s other bookleteer books here

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We need 28 more subscribers to surpass the ‘break even goal’ of 100 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks created by Proboscis for every new annual subscriber from our back catalogue of projects.

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the periodical

the Periodical issue 9

periodical-issue9
Issue 9 has flown the coop and should have landed on doorsteps across the country. Once again we have two new offerings for subscribers in this month’s package, both from a special activity we ran at this year’s Soho Food Feast. The Food Feast is an annual event which raises much needed funds for Soho’s only primary school, Soho Parish. “We Are All Food Critics” gets the children themselves to taste and review many of the delicious and exotic dishes on offer from the many chefs and restaurants who take part. Introduced by Fay Maschler, restaurant critic of the Evening Standard, the children are asked to consider the food through the five senses : sight, smell, touch, sound and taste. The resulting reviews are honest, funny, imaginative and often charming, and we have selected 18 of them for this year’s book (you can compare them with last year’s here)

We Are All Food Critics : A Selection of Reviews

Soho Food Feast 2013 : Food Critics Notebook

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely each month – an enigmatic, eclectic package of beautifully printed books dropping through your letterbox. Get inspired and create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We need 30 more subscribers to reach our ‘break even goal’ of 100 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks created by Proboscis for every new annual subscriber, changing monthly.

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news the periodical

Bob & Roberta Smith Audio CD give away!

BobAndRobertaSmithCD

Each month we select something special from our back catalogue of projects and publications to giveaway as a special extra for new (annual) subscribers to the Periodical. This month we have unearthed an audio CD made by Bob and Roberta Smith for our 2004 project, Navigating History – “Before the TV There Was the Piano” – 20 songs written and performed by Bob. From the back cover,

“Bob Smith sings songs upon the piano in the manner of an absurdist Victorian seaside entertainer then attends the funeral of ‘Lord Charlie Banks’. Can you do ‘The Shepway Shag’?”

We have just 24 copies to give away – on a first come, first served basis. Subscribe now and get your hands on this fabulous and rare collection of ditties.

Open Studio Days at Proboscis
On Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd between 12noon-8pm we are hosting an open studio for people to visit us at Proboscis. There will be works for sale (such as drawing and artworks from various projects) as well as special offers on many of our publications, freebies (for braving our infamous stairs to the 4th floor garret) and extra special gifts for people subscribing to the Periodical on the day (complete sets of the RCA CRD Research Studio publications or complete sets of COIL journal of the moving image). Everyone is welcome (N.B. the studio is not wheelchair accessible) – please drop us a line if you would like to come and visit.

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the periodical

the Periodical issue 8

periodical-may13

Issue 8 is out! This month we have two new offerings for subscribers – our first digitised version of a Field Work sketchbook by Canadian artist Joyce Majiski, and issue two of Hazem Tagiuri’s magazine for new poetry and short fiction, Whisker.

Mexico 2013 by Joyce Majiski
Artist Joyce Majiski lives in the Yukon, Canada and made this Field Work sketchbook whilst on a trip to Mexico this year. Combining collage with drawings, notes and narrative, it is a gorgeous example of how bookleteer can transform a unique, handwritten notebook into something that can be shared online and in print.

Whisker Issue Two by Hazem Tagiuri
Issue two of Hazem’s magazine showcasing new poetry and short fiction features contributions from
James Cramphorn, Daisy Leigh, Hazem Tagiuri, Nick Taylor and Hope Whitmore.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely each month – an enigmatic, eclectic package of beautifully printed books dropping through your letterbox. Get inspired and create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We’re currently aiming to reach 100 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks for every new annual subscriber, changing monthly.

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news the periodical

Subscriptions Success + New Goal

April was a fantastic month for the Periodical – we’re very happy to report that we exceeded our goal of reaching 60 subscriptions (we actually reached 61) and are delighted to welcome 23 new subscribers into this growing community.

Our new goal for May is to reach at least 80 subscribers and we have a very exciting special extra to give to new annual subscribers. As you may know, Proboscis is leaving its studio space in a couple of months and we are undertaking a major review of our archive and back catalogue of projects built up over 19 years. We frequently make things as part of our creative process that don’t come to light for a while, or are never made public. In opening one of the archive boxes I came across some special things which had been planned to form part of a larger special edition artists publication which didn’t in the end come to pass. However, they make a fabulous set on their own and we are pleased to offer them as this month’s special extra inducement to take out an annual subscription to the Periodical.

Between 2008-2011 I commissioned a series of eBooks and StoryCubes by a diverse range of writers, artists, performers, thinkers and makers to respond to two questions from different perspectives, “Why are we who we are?” and, “What do we want to become?” – Diffusion Transformations. I had hoped from the beginning to publish a limited edition containing all the books and cubes, but funds weren’t available to do so, however I did manage to print several of the contributor’s pieces.

We have a small number (around 20 or so) which will be sent out on a ‘first come-first served’ basis to any new annual subscribers. Subscribe now for your chance to have this rare set.


Pharmaceutical Cubes by Kenneth Goldsmith
Legendary concrete poet and founder of UbuWeb, Kenneth Goldsmith created these 6 StoryCubes as a form of writing as texture.


3 Cubic Conundrums by Raqs Media Collective
Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta), co-founders of Sarai, created these 3 StoryCubes for the series : “The Curse of Invariable Good Fortune”, “Door to Door to Door” and “The Fugitive Never Escapes Himself”.


The Octuplet: Story of Our Lives by Babette Wagenvoort
Babbette Wagenvoort’s beautifully illuutrated cubes tell “tells the strange story of eight human-beings living inside their mother, while they prepare for their future. One of the octuplets seems better equipped for life than the others…”


A Sort of Autobiography by Warren Craghead
Described by comics reviewer, Matthew Brady, as “three-dimensional comic strips”, veteran comic artist, Warren Craghead created a set of 10 StoryCubes as a “possible autobiography”.

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news the periodical

the Periodical Issues 1 to 7

thePeriodical_April13

Here is a picture of all the different publications that have been distributed amongst subscribers of the Periodical between October 2012 and April 2013. Each month at least one publication is chosen to be printed and sent out to subscribers, and we have also been adding other goodies sourced from our own archive of previous projects. Everything has been made and shared on bookleteer and can be found in its main public library, with the monthly issues featured in the Periodical library.

Our hope is to inspire subscribers and others to create and share even more fabulous publications on bookleteer, fuelling and driving the Periodical forwards into ever more eclectic domains. Subscribe here to become part of the story.

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news the periodical

the Periodical issue 7

periodical-issue7-april13
Issue 7 is now out and this month we’ve selected something with a nod to the historical moment this month has brought to people in the UK. Tor Lukasik-Foss’s The New Worker’s Songbook Songwriters Workbook for New Worksongs! is a playful guide to creating your own workers’ song, helping you through the process of writing verses, the chorus, rehearsing and performing. It was part of a 2011 collaborative project by DodoLab and Tor, commissioned by the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton, Ontario which was inspired by WAHC’s collection of books and recordings of songs that reflect Hamilton’s history of industry and organized labour. In addition to the songbook, the project led to an exhibition and several public performances using Tor’s Mobile Workers Song Cart.

From the Archives
This month we have distributed copies among the subscribers from a selection of books created for our City As Material 1 : London (2010) and Material Conditions (2011/12) projects. City As Material was a series of walks in London that produced collaborative publications by the participants. Material Conditions was a series of commissioned books made by creative practitioners reflecting on the state of personal creative practice in an era of recessions, austerity and funding cuts.

From Material Conditions,

From City As Material 1 : London,

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely each month – an enigmatic, eclectic package of beautifully printed books dropping through your letterbox. Get inspired and create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We’re currently aiming to reach 80 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks for every new annual subscriber, changing monthly.

Categories
news the periodical

London Book Fair Special Offer

Since this week is the London Book Fair, we thought it only right we should offer something extra for any new annual subscribers signing up and quoting “lbf13” – a copy of the fabulous Endless Landscape Magnet set (in addition to the Professor Starling’s Thetford-London-Oxford Expedition and the Social Tapestries : Case of Perspectives sets). Hurry offers ends Friday 19th!