Celebrating 10 years of Creative Mischief at the Peoples History Museum
This page is now an archive for Loitering With Intent: The Art and Politics of Walking. The exhibition was open in the Community Gallery of The Peoples History Museum between July 23rd-October 14th 2016.
The full event programme and list of participating artists is below. IHere is the general introduction and invitation we shared:
The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) is a Manchester based collective interested in psychogeography, public space and uncovering the secret stories of the city. Since 2006 we have been organising public walks, dérives (drifts), games and spectacles offering new ways to explore the streets. To celebrate 10 years of loitering please come and play with us at The Peoples History Museum
The LRM manifesto says “We can’t agree on what psychogeography means but we all like plants growing out of the sides of buildings, looking at things from new angles, radical history, drinking tea and getting lost, having fun and feeling like a tourist in your home town. Gentrification, advertising, surveillance and blandness make us sad. We believe there is magic in the Mancunian rain. Our city is made for more than shopping. We want to reclaim it for play and revolutionary fun.”
Psychogeography explores how we feel about our environment and the hidden forces that shape wherever we are. The term was first used by Guy Debord, founder member of the Situationist international. Psychogeography has now evolved into a rich and diverse body of art and literature. Psychogeographers use walking in creative ways to explore, experience and map the city. For The LRM our work has an explicit political agenda to uncover the power dynamics that shape our city and offer an alternative way to view them. Every step we take creates new connections and an emotional remapping that inspires different ways to look at Manchester. On the first Sunday of every month we host an expedition which brings people together to wander, play, learn and embrace the possibilities our streets offer. We are volunteer run, not-for-profit and our events are always free and open to everyone.
Walking is often taken for granted as an everyday activity but it has extraordinary resonance. The exhibition explores how walking can be a walk of art or a political act. It documents how the fight for the right to roam in the city, to take up space, is not over. Not everyone is safe or welcome on the streets. Privatisation and enclosure of common land has an impact on everyone, restricting where we go and how we act. Do you know who owns the pavement and whether you are at risk of trouble if you stop to chat? Who is absent from the pavement, park or cafe you use? How can it be made more accessible and open? The LRM believe the streets belong to everyone. Our version of walking includes wheelchairs, sticks and other mobility aids. We want to play out with anyone and everyone interested in imagining, shaping and exploring the city of their dreams. We also believe psychogeography should not be an elite interest; anyone can join in and enjoy playing with the power of the derive. This exhibition brings together artists, activists and loiterers from Manchester and beyond who share our vision. It includes a diverse range of work reflecting the many aspects of psychogeography.
We will share material from The LRM archive, documenting our expeditions as well as posters, found objects and handcrafted items used to guide walks such as CCTV Bingo Cards, game pieces made from metal salvaged from car manufacturing and maps transformed into fortune tellers. There will be presented alongside wider archive material looking at the right to roam and protect public space. We are delighted there are also contributions from local, national and international artists inspired by psychogeography. There is film, drawing, painting, DIY maps, photographs and more, including tools for you to take away and begin your own exploration. A full list of participating artists will be available on the gallery and on our website. There is a programme of events too, expect a blossoming of psychogeographical activity across the city as we take the theory onto the streets where it belongs.
The LRM believe the streets should belong to everyone and that our pavements are full of stories, adventures and connections just waiting to be discovered. To celebrate 10 years of loitering in Manchester we’ve organised an exhibition and a programme of events so please come and walk, play, wander and wonder with us.
(photograph by Helen Derby, was taken during our We Shall Overcome on The Streets event for We Shall Overcome with Quiet Loner and Steve Durrant)
Programme:
Loitering With Intent: The Art and Politics of Walking
July 23rd – October 14th 2016 at People's History Museum
To celebrate 10 years of playing out The LRM are holding a special exhibition at People’s History Museum. The Community Gallery will be full of art by LRM members and friends from Manchester and beyond who are inspired by creative walking. There will also be archive material, short films, music and a programme of talks, walks, games and tools to take away to start your own explorations. From cake maps to CCTV bingo and DIY maps, from strolls across oceans to travels around toilets and the fight for the right to roam we demonstrate how the pedestrian becomes an artistic and political act. Join us for a very special exhibition that shows our pavements are full of stories, adventures and new connections just waiting to be discovered. Please come and walk, play, wander and wonder with. A full line-up of participating artists to be revealed soon. An introduction can be found here: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/loitering-with-intent/ and below is the events programme:
The Cake Map of Manchester
Saturday 23rd July 12 noon until the cake runs out
The Cake Map of Manchester invites you to take a bite out of the city, with each piece representing a place. We want you to choose one to eat. Is it somewhere special to you, are you consumed with love and what to keep it safe? Or is it somewhere you dislike and you want to get rid of it? Be a Godzilla and destroy your least favourite building! Perhaps you just want to taste the canal without the risk of falling in. Please help us find the edible heart of our world. No booking required, but please be aware that when all the cake has been eaten the map will be gone
Loitering With Intent Launch Party
Saturday 23rd July at The Britons Protection 7pm (music from 8)
Please come and celebrate the opening of Loitering Intent with us in one of Manchester’s finest pubs. There will be live music from The New Seegers and friends playing Songs that changed the world. From the Beat Generation to the Woodstock Nation. “Glorious harmonies and tight, fresh arrangements”- Morning Star. Free and no need to book
Manchester Area Psychogeographic: Levitation, Explosions, Exposures
Sunday 24th July 2-4pm
Bob Dickinson, co-founder of Manchester Area Psychogeographic (MAP) talks about the history of Manchester’s first known psychogeographic group. For the first time in 20 years he will show slides taken during MAP’s derives and interventions. These include images taken during their examination of the site of the IRA bomb in Manchester soon after the explosion.
More information and free tickets available here: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/manchester-area-psychogeographic/
Drinking in The City
Tuesday 26th July 2016 2-4pm
This tour explores the impact alcohol has had on shaping the city. It will tell tales of lost pubs, prohibition, famous raconteurs, class struggles, romantic encounters and comedy encounters facilitated by booze. It will also uncover the dark side of the morning after and fears of public health. Manchester has a long and complicated relationship with the bottle and because this is an LRM tour expect our history to be permeable, participatory and opinionated.
Free tickets here http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/drinking-in-the-city/
Manchester's LGBT Centre: We Were Born in the 80s With Emily Crompton
Saturday 6th August 2-4pm
This walking tour will tell the story of how Manchester became the first place to build an entirely publicly funded, purpose designed centre for the gay community, just as Thatcher’s government were enacting Section 28. It follows the money, as it were, from the Town Hall to Canal Street and then to Sidney Street. The story is one of unlikely success in the face of the public funding landscape, some hostile political foes and an infamous 147 signature petition.
Free tickets here http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/manchesters-lgbt-centre-we-were-born-in-the-80s/
Spatial Machines: Walking with GPS (with Chris Wood)
Saturday 13th August 12-4pm
More and more we are coming to rely on technology to know where we are and what is around us. Creating this kind of locative information relies on a massive infrastructure of satellites and ground based reference stations. How do these infrastructures see the world? You will walk around the city seeing how architecture and the built environment can disrupt GPS position and then reflect on the infrastructure’s potential for creating hybrid spaces combining terrestrial and extra-terrestrial lines of sight.
More details and free tickets here: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/spatial-machines/
What is Psychogeography? Talk and gallery tour
Sunday 14th August 2-4pm
This talk and gallery tour will explore what psychogeography is and how wandering can be an artistic or political act. It maps walks from Paris 1968 to contemporary Manchester with deviations to discuss poets, punks, mystics and everyone who fought for our right to roam. Suitable for all ages but space is limited. Free tickets are available here: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/what-is-psychogeography/
Manchester Modernist Heroines Walk
Thursday 18th August 2-4pm
This walk celebrates the achievements of 10 inspirational women who shaped the twentieth century. From artists to aviatrixes, campaigners and designers, Their achievements, and complexities, are largely overlooked by the history books. In the absence of official monuments we will follow the traces they left behind and uncover their legacies. A collaboration between The LRM, Manchester Modernist Society and Shrieking Violet
More details and booking: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/manchester-modernist-heroines-walk/
Walking, Touching, Lying A Walk With Mythogeographer Phil Smith
Saturday 27th August 2-4pm
Mythogeographer Phil Smith will lead an exploration of the wounds, scars, infections, clues and symbols in the texture of the city’s surfaces. The walk will explore different viewpoint levels, how the surface can ripple and trip, and in what particular gutters to look for dust from Mars.
More details and booking: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/walking-touching-lying-2/
First Sunday Derives with The LRM
Sunday 7th August, 4th September and 2nd October 2pm
On the First Sunday of every month The LRM go for a wander. Please join us for a game that will change how you experience the city. We will go for a walk guided by instructions designed to exercise your imagination and uncover secrets on the street. No need to book, just turn up. The walk start from inside The Peoples History Museum
We Shall Overcome on the Streets Part One with Quiet Loner
Sunday 11th September 2-4pm
A musical tour with Quiet Loner exploring radical history, the blurring of public private space, community action and much more. This walk was first performed as part of We Shall Overcome weekend 2015. WSO is pro community and anti-austerity, a raised fist and a helping hand. Together we will be wandering the boundary between public and private space, exploring radical histories, DIY culture, and public/private space.
Book tickets here: Free but please bring a donation for a local organisation (tinned or non perishable food, socks or sanitary items) – more details of what is needed will be sent to participants nearer the time. http://wsostreets1.eventbrite.co.uk
Wandering Around The Toilet
Wednesday 15th September (walk 2-4pm, installation all day)
This tour will explore the history of spending a penny and how lack of public loos impacts on who can use the city. There will be tales of public health, gender inequality, the blurring of public and private space and the fight for fair access to the toilet. All day in the gallery you can meet members of the Around The Toilet Team, and see an installation designed by Architecture students at the University of Sheffield. The construction is based on the materials and design of public toilets to challenge assumptions and provoke a rethinking of issues of gender, ‘ability’, access, surveillance and the meanings of ‘public’ itself. Drop into the gallery all day and book free tickets for the walk here: http://toiletwalk.eventbrite.co.uk
Shadow Play: Liberation and Exhilaration in the Mancunian Night with Nick Dunn
Saturday 17th September 7.30-9.30pm
Where now for the secret, the contemplative, the quiet and subterranean in our cities? The question may no longer be what spaces we wish to engage with but when are they? The nocturnal city is a place and time within which escape from the measures and restrictions of the daytime is possible. More specifically, it is a state of being. More information and free tickets here: http://shadowplaymcr.eventbrite.co.uk
Democracy Outside! With Claire Bonetree
Saturday 24th September 2pm
Come and play politics in a piece of street theatre that invites you to have your say on some big issues. Whose streets? Our streets! Join us as we take over a corner of Manchester and play politics. Democracy Outside is an inclusive, interactive public performance about democracy: part street theatre & part political action, it blurs the boundaries between ‘art’ and ‘activism’. It will move you (if you're doing it right) – and it’s fun! Come prepared to play. No need to book, more information the location will be revealed the week before
Shared Energies: From Syracuse to Here with Moira Williams
Sunday 25th September 2-4pm
A walk linking us with Moira Williams, an artist based in Syracuse New York. We will follow maps of each others cities to find shared histories, synchronicities and friendships. Grab a balloon, grab a map and come along on a walk where we will explore the somewhat shared and connected industrial Revolution histories of land, waterways and activists between Syracuse, NY, USA and Manchester, England, UK. More details and free tickets here: http://syracuse-mcr.eventbrite.co.uk
Walking on Film: Meet the filmmakers
Wednesday 28th September 3-5pm
This symposium brings together three film makers who have contributed to Loitering With Intent. They will each introduce a screening of their work and there will then be a discussion with questions and comments from the audience very much appreciated. More details of the film programme, and details of how to get your free tickets, will be posted soon
The Right to Roam in The City / An Urban Safari
Saturday 1st October 10am-1pm
Join veteran footpath campaigners Don Lee (The Open Spaces Society) and Gloria Gaffney (Pedestrians Association) and learn about the fight for the right to roam in the city. An informal conversation will introduce their campaigning work, and why they feel it is important. Then we will go on an urban safari through alleyways, ginnels and backwaters of the city. Several of these have been subject to controversial closure bids by landlords and / or Manchester City Council. More information and free tickets available here: http://right2roam.eventbrite.co.uk
Get Lost in Liminal Space
Wednesday 5th October 2-4pm
A performative walk exploring thresholds, boundaries and in-between places across the city. Psychogeographers are often drawn to liminal spaces, but what actually does that mean and what do they look like? These are places of transgression, transformation, magick and entrapment. Our guide will make sure you are able to safely return from a trip that will include minor epiphanies, death, sex, music, special brew and complicating binaries. Expect a guided walk that is equal measures of performance, rant, tribute and tour. NB suitable for adults only More information and free tickets here: http://liminalmcr.eventbrite.co.uk
We Shall Overcome on the Streets Part Two
Saturday 8th October noon-2pm
This all new tour has been created for We Shall Overcome 2016 and is a collaboration between The LRM and Quiet Loner. Together 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 few ghost stories, dark humour and passionate ranting too. This is a rallying cry to know your streets and be proud of your community.
Book free tickets here (please bring a donation for a local foodbank, details tbc) http://wsostreets2016.eventbrite.co.uk
Invisible Cities – Literary Psychogeographies at Play with Alan Smith
Sunday 9th October 1-4pm
A brief exploration of literary psychogeography followed by a derive, during which, participants will apply techniques described in order to disrupt and reinvent the city of their imagination. The event will begin with a short description and history of literary psychogeography, taking in figures such as Iain Sinclair, Peter Ackroyd, Thomas DeQuincey, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, William Blake, Arthur Machen, Edgar Allen Poe, Italo Calvino, Alan Moore and JG Ballard. We will then head off to explore the transformative power of the imagination to make the mundane magical. More information and free tickets here: http://invisiblemcr.eventbrite.co.uk
After Hours: Archive and Artist Books Show and Tell plus Curators Talk about The Art and Politics of Walking
Thursday 13th October 3pm – 7pm (talk at 6pm)
Peek behind the scenes of our exhibition Loitering With Intent. Walking is more than pedestrian. It can be a political and or artistic act. Travel through time and space to encounter heroes, villains, revolutionaries, artists, poets, philosophers, situationists, monsters and mystics. We will also discuss how the city has been shaped by transport and why Mancunians have fought for the right to wander our cities. Before the talk there is a chance to explore the exhibition with one of the curators and a unique opportunity to get close to zines, maps and artists books which add to the story.