Thank you so much to the guests, Doughnut(W)Hole curator Kim Shaw, Putney Library and Welcome to Wandsworth for helping to make the launch of BHAM💥 so much fun. Given its experimental nature, I was not entirely sure what to expect and how it would pan out. A flurry of last-minute cancellations did not do much to heighten my expectations. However, in the end, I’m very pleased to say that the event was dialogical, exploratory, and extremely relaxed – precisely what I was hoping for.
I include a few doodles and scribbles that attendees were encouraged to add during the talk, following a series of provocations as we explored some of the concepts that inform the work, such as: i. We have been trained to behave like machines (efficient, productive, linear) since the Industrial Revolution. Now that actual machines can do this better, we are “obsolete” as functions. ii. How do we navigate what many see as ‘the wreckage’ in which we exist today? Could we stop “functioning” and start “being” again – rediscover play, dialogue, and non-productive existence [edit: as the machines get on with their machine-like business]? iii. Perhaps the goal is not to beat the machine at its own game (speed, volume), but to reclaim the ‘slow sediment’ of human being – with, for instance, writing that is uncomfortable, hungry, heartbroken, or irrational.
BHAM💥 was part of The Doughnut(W)Hole, a Wrong Biennale Pavilion, and supported by Welcome to Wandsworth. Both the Wrong Biennale and Welcome to Wandsworth come to a close at the end of March. Our doughnut subscription, however, runs until June. We will therefore leave the site live and add to it until then. We very much hope to pull the material into a printed version – watch this space!
In the meantime, our latest addition to the Doughnut site is a page detailing Sarah Deane’s mini-embassy in Cloonbar Bog, County Galway. Please do take a look. Sarah’s combination of hyperdigital media and the very earth on which we stand and depend makes her inquiry timely and resistant to easy categorisation (always a win from my perspective!)
The BHAM💥, the zine is available to purchase on my website for £10 plus postage (or, if you’re local to my corner of SW London, choose ‘pick up’ and skip the postage costs).