Matthew Sheret

sixfifteen

Written and compiled between 21.30 on April 9th and 09.30 on April 10th, sixfifteen (Screen friendly version found here) was the product of several chance discoveries:

* Sharing a table with Liz Greenfield at Thing ’09 the other week, Sophie Peck stumbled across The Polaroid Press while I discovered Pickle Grief. Post-Con we got into heavy conversation about writing, and made drunken promise, reiterated while sober, to make a ‘zine by the end of April.

* Walking before grabbing a coffee the other day we tripped over a mutual love for Wristcutters: A Love Story, which quickly became a reason to focus our writing. Spinning out of the film’s themes of death, love, life and escape we decided to create 16pages of original content overnight, fueled by cheap Scotch, plenty coffee and the knowledge that we would print or be damned by daybreak.

* Sophie’s work pattern is incredibly different to mine. With seldom less than four things on the go at any one time she works in a very fluid manner. I on the other hand pace around or flit through music until what I have previously referred to as ‘a moment of silence’ immediately before writing the first line of a piece, which I usually complete in one punch. That we were then able to throw fragments and phrases at one another, watch two attention-demanding films (Primer and The American Astronaut) and wander up Alexandra Palace (in time for the titular 6.15 sunrise) is testament to the fact that caffeine and booze are marvelous things.

* There is a loose plan to do this again, and another plan to leave
sixfifteen as an open-ended document, one we can revise for future editions, allowing it to evolve into a form of unzine if you will. Given how well suited some of the pieces are together (and how desperately I want to revise some of my entries already) I’ll be surprised if this is the last project we collaborate on.

* In the meantime, just click on sixfifteen to download a PDF version, ready to print and fold in your own home!

Cowboy Choreography

Chats many and varied were on the agenda this week. Taking advantage of a buoyant sociability and the free time people could squeeze in before the Easter break I turned in a pretty inspirational few days, and felt little more cemented in my current writing in the process.

A lot of that has come down to realising the significance of diversity, both for my inputs and my output. It seems an obvious thing, but it took moments with Matt Jones and Hannah Donovan to convince me that my lack of focus on one definitive project right now was probably one of the best possible states to be in.

Matt referred to work he’d done with Nokia a few years back, and a questionnaire he’d sent to other people working to analyse and project trends. One key element was the question “What do you think will be the most important job title of the 21st century?”, to which one respondent came back with ‘Wrangler’. This is producer, project manager, inspiration engine, troubleshooter, multi-tasker, probably with more than a int of romanticism too (in my reading of it), someone with a idea of the shape a product/service/work, but no linear choreography to get to that end point: The Wrangler demands improvisation and imagination.

Running with the theme, the evolution of media at the moment requires cultural Dungeon Masters, who encourage their ‘party’ through frankly harrowing warrens in order to complete quests. The better Dungeon Masters don’t let the narrative get in the way of the party acting out the roles they have chosen, and get the best out of the players because they know exactly how much leeway to give them.

It strikes me that’s as much a discipline than can apply to the self too, and it’s probably why I’ve got a lot of energy at the moment. I’ve unwittingly found myself juggling several projects (threesixfivestart, ditto, the forthcoming Phonogram Fanzine and last night’s sixfifteen – more on each of them in forthcoming posts), and have made sure I’m giving myself time enough to soak up stimuli for them and exploring different ways around the creative problems they throw up. I’ve hit a really fun equilibrium with them.

But I still keep asking ‘What next?’

sixfifteen

Sixfifteen
with Sophie Peck

Written and compiled between 21.30 on April 9th and 09.30 on April 10th, sixfifteen was the product of several chance discoveries and an awful lot of coffee and cheap Scotch. It is an unzine, to be updated and revised whenever we feel like it.

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