Welcome to the Your Arms! Blog

2007-01-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to the newly revamped Your Arms! blog. After a few months of real-life activity it felt like the online resource for the project needed a unseasonal Spring clean, so please feel free to spend some time exploring the nooks and crannies of this website.

The rest of the material from Your Arms! activity has been compartmentalised neatly into distinct chronological phases, please use the links below to visit them.

"Your Arms!" at Bradford Mela, June 2008

"Your Arms!" at Saltaire Festival, September 2007

"Bring Us Your Arms! Bradford" STIR festival, July 2007

"Bring us Your Arms! Leeds" Holbeck, May 2007

"Your Arms!" take Leeds and Bradford to Italy and Greece, Feb 2007

"Bring us Your Arms! Biella" Italy, Oct 2006

Thank you for visiting, we make an attempt to update the site regularly. We welcome your feedback and input, please get in touch.
e: bringusyourarms@yahoo.co.uk

grazie mille,

Andy and Yvonne.

"Your Arms!" presentations in Italy and Greece.

2006-11-01T02:07:00.000-08:00

In January 2007 The Your Arms! project began it's second phase in preparation for a presentation at the Biella Oasis of the Nurope Nomadic University of Philosophy and Enterprise.

Andy and Yvonne were invited to present the work they had done over the Summer as part of the residency at Cittadellarte to academics and business leaders from across Europe in a debate over the future of Industrialised communities and links between creativity and economics.

To better contextualise the project Andy and Yvonne researched council and community led initiatives that might prompt discussion about art activity and enterprise. This spanned the local activity in Yorkshire to the wider economic context. Presentation notes and an archive of the research can be seen here

To illustrate the current situation in Bradford and Leeds and give examples of community and state-led activity, Andy and Yvonne also made a short film interviewing local figures about their relationship with these two very different cities that have developed in close proximity of one another.

Video for Nurope presentation part 1.

Video for Nurope presentation part 2.

Video for Nurope presentation part 3.

The credits for the video (missing from the online version for technical reasons) are: quotes about Leeds and Bradford from Vic Allan and Kate Dunn, other quotes from Jeremy Rifkin's 'End of Work' (1994) and Brian Milani's 'Designing the Green Economy'(2000).

Following this presentation they were invited by the O2k (Open to Knowledge knowledge economy project) to deliver the same presentation in Thessaloniki, Greece where representatives from the Biellese district were also present.

The seminars in Italy and Greece raised a lot of issues about the future of Biella and how a relationship with other cities and communities may inform how the region could adapt to changes in production. Reflections on the seminars and plans of actions drawn up immediately afterwards can be found here

Interview for Italian article with Andy and Yvonne

2006-10-31T07:29:00.002-08:00

PARALLEL REGIONS, IMPRESSIONS OF BIELLA FROM YORKSHIRE

Andy Abbott and Yvonne Carmichael from Yorkshire in North of England, write about their impressions of Biella, and the past experiences in England that have shaped their perspective of a textiles towns in different countries.

Childhood, family, and location. Growing up with Textiles.

AA: I was brought up in Derbyshire, an area south of Yorkshire, but like Yorkshire it was an area that was responsible for great changes in textiles production at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This meant that when I was very young a lot of my school projects were about people like Richard Arkwright who was responsible for building the first ever textiles mill in nearby Cromford, and for the widespread use of the 'Spinning Jenny' in the late 18th Century.

YC: I was born in a small town in the middle of a valley in Lancashire famed for being the most well preserved mill town in Britain. Many of my relatives worked in the mills from a very young age, my great Aunt Alice worked in textile mills for 46 years growing up, so I heard many anecdotes about what it used to be like working in the mills.

AA: Although no members of my family were involved directly in textiles it was a constant presence throughout my education and changed the landscape of the areas I grew up in. Mills, factories (functioning and disused), water wheels and chimneys were all common features in the towns I grew up in. Around the time I left school some of my friends worked for textiles manufacturers like John Smedley who were at that time internationally renowned and boasted Whitney Houston as one of their clients.

Moving to Leeds, first impressions and the city lifestyle

AA: I moved to Leeds in 1999 to work after graduating from high-school. My first job was working in a warehouse packing clothes. The company didn't actually manufacture or produce anything. My days were spent removing identical items of clothing from their packaging, inserting a coat-hanger and then repackaging them to be distributed to shops across the country.

Leeds was an exciting place to be for me because I am interested in music and there is an excellent 'DIY' or underground culture, particularly in the area I lived, known as LS6. However the culture in Leeds outside of this close-knit music community left me with a different impression. As is the norm for people of our age in Leeds, my friends and I worked in variety of call centre and office administration jobs in temporary positions. This would provide us with money to spend on drinking and shopping, which appeared to be the main sources of entertainment in Leeds.

Access to history in Leeds

AA:I started to take an interest in the history of Leeds when I studied art at University. I began working on a project about Industrial architecture, with a focus on how redundant Chimneys now act as monuments and landmarks. However prior to this research I admit I was ignorant to the fact that Leeds had such a strong textiles history, in fact upon moving to Leeds a friend of mine commented that 'there doesn't seem to be much historical presence in Leeds'.

YC: When I was 18 I moved to Leeds to study art. I became interested in how the history of textile manufacture is represented in Lancashire (where I was born) and Yorkshire (where I had moved to). Through this research I realised how separated people feel from their past, especially when living in a city like Leeds. I began to research museums like Armley Mills in Leeds and other industrial or textiles museums that attempt to make the history of the area more visible.

Although local history museums are a valuable resource for the North of England, one of the problems I encountered whilst doing this research was that museums are always never neutral. The manner in which the curator presents the facts can change the way people see their own history. This is one of the reasons why I prefer talking to or interviewing people, instead of using books and museums as a source of information.

A move to Bradford.

AA: My interest in local architecture and history was accelerated when I met Yvonne who was working on similar art projects in Leeds. This interest in local history culminated in us moving to Saltaire earlier this year. Saltaire is a model village built in the 1850s in between Leeds and Bradford.

The village is developed around a textiles mill built on the river Aire by a Bradford industrialist called Titus Salt. Salt is famed for his humanitarian approach and contribution to improved welfare in industry. In addition to the large, clean houses he built for his mill workers, he also provided Saltaire village with schools, a church, and facilities for intellectual and recreational pursuits. However he disliked alcohol and banned pubs and drunkeness in the village.

In the 1980's Bradford suffered greatly as the textiles industry crumbled due to competition from abroad (particularly from Italy) and many people were left unemployed. My impression of the Bradford I visited upon first moving to Leeds in 1999 was that of a depressing and grey place. There were many empty warehouses and factories and it lacked the cosmopolitan feel that Leeds possesses thanks to its popular Universities and population of 'young professionals'.

YC: It is common in the north of England to attempt to ignore the decline and closure of the mills as if it is an unimportant stage in the development of industries. Some local history museums even keep all the old textiles machines in full working order to a level where they could actually produce material, meaning that visitors museum doesn't recognise how and why the mill closed down.

AA: During our time in Saltaire and Bradford we have discovered a surprising amount about the history of the area. In contrast to Leeds, Bradford seems to have maintained a strong link with its industrial past (it was the largest centre for textiles production in the world in the 19th century) and appears proud to both present this past and allow it to characterise modern day Bradford. For these reasons I currently feel a closer relationship with Bradford and Saltaire than with the gentrified feel of larger and more famous cities like Leeds and Manchester.

This is not to say that Bradford is wallowing in its past or is slow to develop a new economy. Indeed, the saving grace for Saltaire following the decline of the textiles industry was the transformation of Salts mill into a complex of art, restaurants, and book and gift shops. Salts Mill has been an incredible success, helped along by the endorsement of internationally famed and Bradford raised artist David Hockney, and is responsible for UNESCO granting the village World Heritage Site status in 2002.

Biella and the Yorkshire connection.

AA: My first impressions of Biella were gained from research about the area in preparation for the residency we are currently working on at Cittadellarte. When we learnt that the area had an important textiles industry we immediately felt a connection with the town. Since arriving in July we have discovered many parallels in the development of both the industry and the town, from smuggled weaving machines, similar natural resources and a mutual respect for the other's architecture to unpredictable weather and a strong work ethic.

However it is the things that make Biella unique, or different to Yorkshire, that most fascinate me; the local artisans and the products they make, the beautiful paving stones and well kept roads, the cleanliness of the town and the breathtaking scenery. Of course, the food, the ice cream and the beer are also of particular interest to us Britons. Most importantly, this knowledge of what characterises the place of Biella has left us with a strong desire to find out what characterises the people of Biella and their outlook on life. We hope to satisfy this desire in the coming months and share the findings with other people in Yorkshire who would no doubt find it equally as fascinating that there is a place in another part of the world with which we can so pertinently compare and contrast our lives.

YC: They clearly have a lot in common, but are maybe at different stages in the same process. Bradford has been through a similar crisis to that that is facing Biella, and its just now finding its feet again after some very hard times. In this way we hope that the relationship between Yorkshire people and the people of this area will run deeper than pure novelty and have some constructive and useful implications.

Essay by Andy Abbott

2006-10-31T07:12:00.000-08:00

AN ESSAY IN PROGRESS BY ANDY ABBOTT ABOUT PRE AND POST INDUSTRIAL UTOPIAS IN RELATION TO BIELLA AND YORKSHIRE

Introduction

Plato (Republic 1.643b-c) 'to make a good farmer [a man] must play'

The purpose of writing this text is as a primer to an essay, or an elaboration of an art project. I believe it will sit somewhere in between the two; not developed enough to be considered exhaustive or researched to an academic level, but pretentious enough to elevate it above a purely anecdotal recital of the experiences I have enjoyed over the last few months and the knowledge that accompanied it.

My interest in art is focused on notions of work and play. It has been my intention over the past year to develop a definition of 'productive play' and research it's forms more closely. In this same year I have become increasingly interested in the nature of work, particularly that responsible for the dominant Victorian architecture of Leeds. A key element to the action of work (as opposed to play) is that it is characterised by its desire to immortalise the worker. Leeds, like most cities in the North of England, is a city that expanded rapidly around the time of the industrial revolution, meaning most of the buildings are of this period, and the workers who's daily actions are immortalised in its architecture are also from this period.

Did that mean that work was better in those days? The 'good old days' when you could see how much you made everyday, when what you produced had a tangible quality, when others could see the fruits of your labour? You maybe even knew that your work would not only have some real effect in the here and now, but had the potential to still be around in the lives of distant future generations. A time before the domination of the service sector, the invention of call centres, the franchise and chain store take-over, maybe even before bureaucracy for the sake of creating jobs? Was there a time when work was good?

I further became fascinated with the idea of agriculture and self-sustenance, as therein lay a form of meaningful work or 'productive play', an action with consequence but without physical reification, a form of work that satisfied man's desire to create without the harmful after-effect of adding to the human artifice. Was working with the land an action that fell between labour, work and play - a holy trinity that is all three and yet none?

These questions remain unanswered, possibly because they are unanswerable, but if there was one certainty it is that the most pertinent period in history to examine those issues that surround work and play, it would be at the onset of the industrial revolution.

Industrial Revolution and Mechanisation

Historians argue over the exact start of the industrial revolution, but it is generally accepted that it was at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries when the process of industrialisation, beginning in the UK, changed the majority of lives forever. The mechanisation of processes that had once taken generations to master were transformed into 'unskilled labour'. One advantage of the substitution of crafts and trades with 'unskilled labour' is that it opened the job market wide open and in so doing created a welcome escape route from the previous forced reality of master-led feudalism. However, aside from the fact that many of these unskilled job opportunities were filled by children and offered the lowest wages possible, mechanisation abolished a great deal of thriving trades, particularly within the textiles industry.

Prior to the introduction of mechanised mills it was common that the processes in the textiles industry were carried out from home. Families would work together spinning with simple wheels or weaving using handlooms. The pieces of cloth were produced in this home environment were then collected by a master who paid the family for what they had produced, what we now know as 'piecework'.

Factories where workers were needed simply to oversee the machines (and each other) transformed this piecework into a common method of production we understand best now through the term 'time is money'. Rather than survival being dependent on what you were able to produce, the workingman, woman or child's only obligation necessary to survive was to hand their day over to the mill or factory owner. Work was reduced to a simple sacrifice of time, and the fate and responsibility for the workers survival was in the Mill owners' hands.

This process of transformation from specifically rewarded work, to generically rewarded labour didn't pass without opposition. In the north of England the violent and bloody Luddite uprising is documented as having begun in 1811. The Luddites were a secret society of machine breakers who met on moors to destroy the machines and mills that threatened their livelihoods. Even the earliest machines including the Spinning Jenny were met with suspicion and at times physical resentment. In Biella it is noted that the people’s scepticism towards the mechanisation of processes that had been passed down as hand skills through generations meant Italy lost out to competition from UK and French textiles production on more than one occasion. Eventually though, it was British spinning-machines bought from Belgium that began the industrialisation of the wool industry in Northern Italy. Industrialisation spread and affected everything.

Industrialisation is now my generation's reality. We can't imagine a life before or after it any more than we can imagine a life before or after the cycle of day and night. Even with the decline in the manufacturing sector, the processes that were once put in place to ensure the efficient manufacture of goods are now being transferred to the service sector, as it has become increasingly apparent that division of labour and production line techniques are equally as effective at ensuring an efficient and compliant workforce in restaurants, call centres, help desks, schools and so forth.

As many have predicted though, industrialisation has become its own undoing. Technology has advanced to such a stage that the efficiency of machinery means that the number of jobs in direct manufacturing has peaked and declined within 100 years. Unrestricted international trade has aided the production industry in centralising in areas where labour and material costs are least expensive, meaning regions and countries that once thrived on productive industries are unable to compete with overseas imports.

We are at the dawn of a new Era. Economist Jeremy Rifkin describes this new phase of technological capabilities as a third industrial revolution, and addresses the economic implications in his book 'The End of Work'. At this juncture it could be suggested that we take a retrospective look at the original plans and dreams that spurned the rapid growth of industrialisation, and see what we can salvage from the wreckage. Similarly we can identify the seeds of our own undoing by examining the intentions of utopianists in the pre and post-industrial period, as we will find that best intentions don't always result in the best actions.

Utopias

'Utopia' refers to the fictional island recounted in Thomas Mores novel of 1516 of the same name. In it, More describes a little known land in the New World that operates on a harmonious and successful level to the benefit of all its inhabitants. A few characteristics that contribute to this success are a rejection of false pleasures (including fine clothes and money), the more or less equal distribution (and consequent reduction) of work and a devout faith to a single god with a tolerance to other beliefs.

More’s book was incredibly successful and has had a huge influence on literature, politics and economics since its publication until the present day. Utopia is now a byword for a perfect place or a paradise on earth. Similarly efforts to create a better, or perhaps a perfect society are called utopianism and ideas that could be or are considered able to radically change our world are often called utopian ideas. It has also been used to describe actual communities founded in attempts to create such a society.

At first it would appear senseless to study Utopias or Utopian ideas in reference to actual social change, as we are entering the realm of fantasy. The term "utopia" is combined from two Greek words - "no" (ou) and "place/land" (topos), thus meaning "nowhere" or more literally, "no-place/no-land". Utopias are places that by definition can't exist or are unable to exist. Although some authors have described their utopias in detail, and with an effort to show a level of practicality, the term "utopia" has come to be applied to notions that are (supposedly) too optimistic and idealistic for practical application. "Utopian" in a negative meaning is used to discredit ideas as too advanced, too optimistic or unrealistic, and impossible to realise.

However, a resignation to the absence of attainability of perfection does not mean we should not strive for it. Toby Green outlines in the beginning of his novel, 'Thomas More’s Magician: A Novel Account of Utopia in Mexico' the overall apathy of present government in the UK and asks what ever happened to idealism? For although our visions for Utopia may be unattainable, it is these visions that motivate progress and throw up otherwise unimaginable solutions to real problems.

Additionally, More's Utopia has been criticised for being impossible to initiate (the only way it can ever exist is if it had always existed) but there do exist instances where Utopian communities have been attempted. It is no small coincidence that these often occur in the wake of great social change (for example Fouriers' Phalanx-style communities around the time of the 1848 French Revolution or Vasco de Quiroga's commune on the Mexico City outskirts in 1532). Indeed Toby Green commented that the environment that led to Quiroga's practical attempt (and no doubt the first based on More's book) at initiating a utopian commune was present because 'The Americas came to represent a place in which the slate had been wiped clean and people could begin again'.

So, as we now find ourselves at a point where jobs are disappearing and the old methods of production and resultant organisation of labour are being altered forever, we are presented with a clean slate so to speak. At the dawn of the aforementioned third industrial revolution, just as at the first, there is no better time to reignite our idealism.

The role of work

It is obvious that when inventing or describing a Utopia one of the first points of interest to the modern man will be how (or if) the citizens of that Utopia work, as it is the mark by which we have measured our lives for centuries. In More's Utopia the citizens have designed a system by which they work as little as is required and yet produce is plentiful. Each person in Utopia was required to work for six hours a day, with a portion of this work being farming work in addition to their own trade. 'The commonwealth is primarily designed to relieve all citizens from as much bodily labour as possible, so that they can devote their time to the freedom and cultivation of the mind. For that, they think, constitutes a happy life.' At the turn of the industrial revolution work was to play an even more prominent role in Utopian designs.

Charles Fourier, a French utopian writer who’s first book was published in 1808, imagined workers would be recompensed for their labors according to their contribution and saw such cooperation occurring in communities he called "phalanxes." Phalanxes were based around structures called "grand hotels". These buildings were four level apartment complexes where the richest had the uppermost apartments and the poorest enjoyed a ground floor residence. Wealth was determined by one's job; jobs were assigned based on the interests and desires of the individual. There were incentives, jobs people might not enjoy doing would receive higher pay.

It would appear that for industrial Utopianists like Fourier a form of hierarchy was not problematic, in fact it was desirable. Even in More's Utopia patriarchy and hierarchy reign supreme, where the eldest male in each household exerts authority over the rest of the family and a handful of elected priests impart wisdom to the entire society. Throughout the industrialisation of textiles and other manufacturers this phenomenon manifested itself as
'paternalism', best exemplified in the worker's or 'model' village.

The model village was the industrial equivalent of a Utopia achievable on Earth, and for millworkers that had lived and worked in the factories in Bradford in the early 19th Century it may well have felt like one. The overcrowded living conditions, poor quality housing and dreadful pollution of Bradford in the early to mid 19th Century is described as 'like having entered hell itself' and was of course famed for its 'dark satanic mills'. This in turn had an adverse affect on the morality and pastimes of the working classes who were reportedly indulging in all manner of drinking, sexual deviation and violence. This was of much concern to the emerging middle classes who were attempting to make or retain their fortunes off the back of this labour force.

An attempted solution to the adverse effects of industrialisation on the morality of Yorkshire workers came in the form of Titus Salt's model village 'Saltaire'. Here appropriate sized housing and cultural amenities were provided to all workers in the revolutionary 'Salts Mill' that housed all stages of manufacture for producing worsted cloth. Equivalents exist all over Britain and the rest of the world, in Scotland with New Lanarkshire, in Italy with the cotton producing Crespi d'Adda and also later in Olivetti's projects in Ivrea and in Spain to name but a few. Although the product and the form of these villages may have varied, one aspect remained constant - the presence of the job and therefore the employer in all aspects of the resident's life.

There is no doubt that these workers villages offered a vastly improved alternative to the worker’s previous life in the earlier unregulated urbanity that rapidly sprung up around newly built factories at the turn of the century in the UK. However, humanitarian philanthropists such as Titus Salt also benefited greatly from a healthy and obedient workforce, who was quoted as having questioned 'why he should be bothered to build anything [in the village] which worked against his business.' Yorkshire entrepreneurs like Titus Salt and Samuel Lister became the richest men in the city thanks to their giant mills and the number and productivity of the workforce they kept.

Similarly in Italy the industrial revolution gave the opportunity for the 'upper orders' to amass great wealth, exemplified up in to the last century when in 1963 Biella was the second city in Italy in the 'personal plane league'. Huge fortunes were won thanks to industrialisation with areas in Yorkshire and Italy becoming known as 'wool capital of the world' at various times, and single trades offering employment to nearly the entire population of those towns and cities.

Some would have considered the opportunity for free movement up the social order through indiscriminating (unskilled) work, the introduction of state schooling and the expansion of previously insular towns into multicultural business hotbeds as Utopian ideals, however the long term effects tell a different story.

Aside from a number of public parks, civic buildings and elaborate chimneys it would be hard to say that the industrialisation of areas has done more good than harm. The industrialists' vision has shaped land across countries and continents without discrimination. In Leeds and Bradford the surrounding villages and hamlets were transformed into workers' suburbs linked by roads, in Biella 'the whole landscape speaks of industrial labour'. In both Bradford and Biella the rivers that once made the areas so suitable for the manufacture of textiles have been described as changing colour with the seasons' fashion, thanks to the dumping of industrial dyes. The canal in Bradford at one point was so full of raw sewage that it could be set alight with a match. Nowadays the landscape of the city is dotted regularly with redundant mills, those of which that aren’t derelict or neglected are being transformed into flats or consumer oriented art spaces.

Compounding this irreparable transformation of the landscape is the fall-out suffered after relying solely on one type of work. The 'unstoppable' textiles trade (which on closer inspection has seen few periods that couldn’t be described as turbulent) fooled people into believing they had a job for not only their life, but for the lives of generations that followed. The national recession of Thatcherite Britain in the early Eighties paints a depressing and stark picture, with workers who have only known one trade and one facet of life so well, now out of work and lost. Similarly an imported labour force from South Pakistan who had moved to mill areas on the promise of a richer and more fulfilling living were left with little options to integrate into the textiles-less economy other than to work in the 'transport industry'.

More importantly what was left and will be left by the inevitable shift of the textiles industry is a population that judge each other's worth by their job title, with few jobs to go round. As with most of the world, but particularly in industrial areas, there exists a kind of social hierarch based on wealth and work. Those with the greatest wealth and the most sophisticated jobs are most revered and their position aspired to, whereas those that at one time contributed with the greatest effort endured the lowliest conditions and social standing. Far from being a utopianist environment, this characteristic of industrialisation is actually in direct contrast to the ideals of the Utopia outlined by More.

'For what sort of justice is it for some nobleman or goldsmith or moneylender or, in short, any of the others who either do nothing at all or something that is not very necessary for the commonwealth, to live luxuriously and splendidly in complete idleness or doing some superfluous task? And at the same time a laborer, a teamster, a blacksmith or farmer works so long and hard that a beast of burden could hardly sustain it, performing tasks so necessary that without them no commonwealth could survive at all for even a single year, and yet they earn such a meagre living and lead such miserable lives that the beasts of burden seem better off.'

Interview with Jamie Dodds about Lauriestone

2006-10-31T06:44:00.000-08:00

INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE DODDS OF LEEDS ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES DURING HIS TIME SPENT IN A LAND AND HOUSING CO-OP COMMUNE IN SCOTLAND.

Hey Jamie,

So, the project we are working on (and my art practice in general) is based around notions of work and play. ie what is work, what is play, can play be productive? Can work ever be good? Etc.

To this end I'm writing an essay about industrial utopias in the early-mid 19th century and about plans for post industrial utopias in the current era. I'm sure your well versed with the notion that we are on the brink of a huge change in economics and production that requires a re-evaluation of what we do and our attitudes to our quality of daily life.

So, with that in mind I just wanted to get some idea of your personal experience in the commune. I'll type out a few questions below that you can respond to (or not) as you like. Feel free to add stuff or go off on whatever tangent you like. Then we can carry on saving and sending the document to each other if necessary, like a real conversation. Wacky.

Can you give me a basic outline of the commune including all the basic details; name, location, origins and history etc?

Jinkies, you could write about this alone! The commune is called Laurieston Hall, except it isn't really a commune anymore, it's now a land and housing co-op, at least thats what a resident would tell you. Anyway, the commune is called Laurieston Hall and it is located in South West Scotland, near a small town called Dumfries.

The Hall itself is a huge old manor house type place. It was built by an old Scottish laird (or lord if you prefer), as a hunting lodge. It is a massive and impressive building that is quite over aweing and of course this I imagine is what the laird wanted, to impress his guests who came to go hunting with him. The building itself has over 75 rooms and a tower at the back, also there are gardeners cottages, outhouses, caravans and converted stables all of which are lived in.

There are acres of land attached to the Hall that include several fields an extensive patch of amazing woodland, part of a loch called Woodhall Loch, a walled garden and a lawn complete with swings and a tree house.

The commune itself is well established and has been there for over 30 years now. It was bought outright by a small collection of folk from London for around £25.000. The group were linked to each other through the feminist movement of the time. The Hall had been used as a hospital in world war 2 and this carried on for many years, there are still folk alive in the village of Laurieston who used to work there in the days when it was a hospital. So the commune has been there a long time and though there is only 1 of the original group there a lot of the residents have been there a long time. Which in my opinion plays its part in the longevity of the commune.

And what was the population when you were there? How long do people stay there on average (if there is an average) months, years, decades? Is it common that there are families that have been started within the commune by members that didn’t know each other outside of Laurieston?

Okay, so there were 19 adults and 8 children (children being aged 16 and under) who were co-op members whilst I was there. Also there were 11 adults at various times on long stays and 5 children. On top of that there is a collection of individuals who stop for short stays on a regular basis who are friends with the Hall. All guests have to have a nominated person at the Hall who is their 'host', that person must put a note on the board about their guest(s) indicating how long they will be stopping and where. So even when my girlfriend or family came it was considered polite to let people know, it also serves as a way of booking a room so nobody else’s guest gets put there, and that kind of thing.

Laurieston is quite open about the fact that they prefer people who want to be members to want to stay and have some vision or commitment to the place. So once a person or persons become a member they usually hang around a while. One family after becoming members had left 1.5 years later, though it was clear this family were loved, respected and missed; it was also clear that people weren't happy about the short commitment to the Hall. There is a caucus of people who have been there 20 years or so and, as mentioned, one original member. I can't see these people moving anywhere now and I know that some of them plan to be buried there; they already have permission and everything. Shortly after I left a family that had been there (in one form or another) for 14 years decided they were leaving. That was a big shock to us all (even me)! I had spent many a time hanging out with all the family members and Laurieston will no doubt struggle without them. But from what I've experienced the more transient style members average about 5 years there.

As for families starting within the commune, well yes quite a bit of that has definitely gone on over the years. There are 4 established couples who all met each other at Laurieston, but monogamy isn't really practiced by the majority of the commune. But like I say, people there are older now, I bet there was some right old swinging in the seventies! However of them 4 couples, 2 have children. There is also a younger family there, one of their member was born and raised there, then went off to university and traveled round the world and all of that. But now is back there raising his own family. His mum still lives there too.

How did you find out about it and what was the remit for participation?

I found out about it through my family. My dad has a love for juggling and he went there on a circus skills week and realised it was a great place to take kids. So the following year took my sister and her kid. And I went with them the following few years and like the rest of my family, fell in love with the place.

The remit for participation is a little more complex.

It is usual when a person wants to become a member of the Hall that they will write a letter expressing an interest and then that person (or peoples) will be invited to come on a maintenance week. The Hall has 3 maintenance weeks a year when people come and stop at the Hall and spend all week patching it up.

If after this you still want to become a member you write another letter and get invited for a long stay. When you come for a long stay you get appointed a guardian angel (or 2 or 3, in my case 2) that support and guide you through your stay. A long stay is a period usually of at least 3 months.

Then you can apply for a joining period, which again lasts at least 3 months and again supported by guardian angels. Then you become a full member. Its quite a lengthy process.

So that's how you join if that is what you mean by remit for participation.

So do you see the maintenance as a kind of 'initiation' to see if that person could hack it, or would fit in with the lifestyle? Who do the letters go to and does everyone that sends a letter get invited to a maintenance week, or are there characteristics they try and identify in the letter, or a screening process?

Maintenance serves many functions at Laurieston. Some big projects that preserve the Hall are reserved for these weeks these include; renovating the eves (a section gets removed revamped and replaced every year over the course of the three different weeks), the old lead electricity wires get replaced, roofs replaced and every single chimney gets swept. To live at Laurieston is to live in fear of the dreaded chimney fire, there is inevitably one a year and it is the consequence of burning wood in chimneys designed for coal (hence the chimney sweeping). Also the commune really comes together and works as one over these weeks eating, working and relaxing together.

Also it is some peoples preferred way to holiday there, if you go on a maintenance you will hang out with the residents a lot more and a lot more intimately than any other people centre event. And yes if you want to go for a long stay it is the start of the screening process.

What did a normal day entail (if there was such a thing)? Were routines common or deliberately avoided? Did you find any old habits difficult to kick?

Well, there is and there isn't a routine to Laurieston Hall (make sense of that!). There is more of a weekly routine than a daily routine. The daily routine is go to bed early and get up early. But I must explain the principle of work-share if you are to understand the routine.

Work-share is the currency by which Laurieston runs. It is expected that as a long stay visitor, a person on their joining period or as a full member that you will work 2.5 days a week for the community (it is also expected that you will partake in 1 wood trip a week). This is kind of made easier by having a structured week.

Monday; wood trip in the morning, co-op meeting in the afternoon.
Tuesday, gardening in the morning.
Wednesday, land work.
Thursday, maintenance work.
Friday, wood trip in the morning, tidy communal areas in the afternoon.

So you could structure your week and do 2.5 days worth of work by slotting into that routine. However, on top of this; cows needed feeding and milking, chickens needed feeding and eggs collecting, pigs needed to be fed, cheese needed to be made and machinery maintained.

However for 6 months of the year (the summer months if you like), the commune runs a people centre, which serves as an income generator for those who live there, the staffing of which certainly throws a spanner in the works for the above routine. Also do wood trips and co-op meetings count as work-share? There is no definitive answer to that question.

The habit I found hard to kick has to be my love of getting drunk and staying up late and smoking, which happened a fuck of a lot less at Laurieston, but still had to be done!

I'd like to know a little more about the structure and nature of the co-op meetings if possible. Were there particular people that headed the meetings? What kind of topics came up for discussion? Was every single member of the commune obliged to be present or was it voluntary? With this in mind what was the attendance like?

Well co-op meetings were held as good as every Monday afternoon and every Monday a different resident takes it in turn to facilitate a meeting. That works out at about 2 meetings a year each. After every meeting the following weeks facilitator puts up the agenda for their meeting on the notice board, that stays on the board until Friday lunch time. This gives people time to read the agenda and add to it, if you add an agenda item you must also leave a note about this item explaining as much as possible what it is you are proposing.

Whilst I was living at the commune the bird flu panic hit the nation, so the maintenance group in conjunction with the chicken group proposed the building of indoor feeding/living areas for the chickens in anticipation of being forced to do this. We made a preliminary design and worked out costs, which weren't very much. This was agreed and the week we began work there were at least 2 cases of bird flu in Scotland and it was all over the news. Obviously it was all for nothing in the end. However it was straightforward and inexpensive.

One topical discussion was the construction of a new disabled ramp. This ran on for weeks! Which door should it go on, what should it be made out of, should it be permanent or removable? Anyway it was decided that we at least agreed in principle that we should build another. Then the following week a person who hadn't been at the previous meeting decided to challenge what was meant by 'agree in principle'. So we had a 40-minute discussion about that. Most boring. The topic of the disabled ramp was unresolved when I left.

But a typical meeting would start with the 'usuals', which was an update on the people centre and chance for any of the working groups (maintenance, gardening etc) to feed back what they were up to if it was important. Then it’s the visitor's slot, where visitors get a chance to speak if they want, then the agenda. Its important to understand that this is where all decisions are made from buying a new computer to who joins, what people centre events should and shouldn't run to who didn't put my washing in the machine when they should, and it always ended on lifts, who is driving where and when.

You were expected to go to a meeting if you could, but stuff just sometimes gets in the way. People with kids would take in turns to go whilst the other babysat and some meetings were more popular than others, usually defined by the agenda.

Another thing I feel I should mention, when someone wants to come for a long stay, or joining period, that letter goes up on the board and everyone reads it. Then when it is discussed (and membership is always prioritised at meetings), all non-members have to leave the meeting. This is so residents have the freedom to speak their feelings openly. The discussion is not minuted.

What was the role of machinery and technology in your life in the commune. I know you mentioned to me the other night that it certainly wasn't 'Primitivist' although to outsiders it may seem that way. Was any friction or debate centred around the use of machinery in the community?

There was absolutely no friction about the need to use machinery. To outsiders there would no doubt be something 'old fashioned' about the way of life. Baking your own bread, growing your own food, chopping wood, heating the entire place with wood burning stoves only etc. However you mention in your preamble the need for a massive shift in culture and life style and part of that shift is embracing these 'life style choices'. I can totally recommend baking your own bread, it is both satisfying and you can make something very different to shop bought.

The 2 tractors were the most important machines we had, we also had a muck spreader, hay bailer, lawn mower and wood splitter; all of which were tractor driven. On top of that we have cars, a milking machine, a 'cheese vat', chain saws, band saws, angle grinders, drills and so on. People had their own computers and there was a house computer, people had their own tellys and there was a house telly (and dvd player and video). There was friction around the booking of the house telly and video and tariffs for computer use.

How was the labour for sustenance divided between everyone in the commune? Was it purely non-hierarchical? Was there any natural division of labour?

This is kind of hard to describe. Hopefully you have a bit of a handle on work-share and the structure of a week. Now people naturally gravitate towards what interests them and where their strengths lie. I was a member of the dairy group, the maintenance group and the land group; though I would often get involved with the wood committee and the garden group. And if your group was going to take on a big job that needed more hands than was usual you would put a call out for assistance in the co-op meeting and even do a sign up sheet for the notice board so you knew who to expect and who was doing what.

Does that explain it?

How did trade with the 'outside world' operate, and how did any profits find their way back into the community?

Yeah, well I've touched on the people centre. This runs over the summer months, roughly May to September and includes the 3 maintenance weeks as well as things like, circus skills week, gay men's weeks, yoga week and so on. During one of these events the group is cooked for and cleaned up after and hosted. All groups have to help with cooks and big wash ups and a sign up system is used but groups tend to like this as they then get the opportunity to mingle with the residents. And basically you get paid a flat hourly rate by the people centre.

Also the People Centre will pay for stuff around the commune like, toilet rolls, cleaning products, tools and equipment needed for maintenance and so on.

How much of each day did you consider yourself to be 'working' or 'playing', were those boundaries blurred in your experience?

Notions of work and play are quite interesting, especially having lived in Laurieston for a while. George Orwell said something along the lines that work is the natural extension of play. A keen Gardener loves their garden but there are times when there are things that have to be done that become work, because it is raining, or you are hungry, or sad or all those things.

At 6.30 in the morning milking the cow never felt like play, with the exception of the interaction with the cows. And some of the bigger, more boring jobs like spreading manure and cleaning the cow byer definitely felt like work.

But most of the time you were working with friends on jobs you'd chosen to do. There was a culture of always having a tea break in the morning and afternoon and a sound attitude was adopted. So although I was working on the roof fitting a new chimney pot, sorting out leaks, sweeping chimneys or whatever, I was also definitely playing. Just getting on the roof was fun scampering up through a sky light. Then you had to get to the part of the roof you wanted to work on, which involved scrambles and jumps. Then there was the fun of being at a height and being able to see everyone else pottering around.

On a wood trip you could work fucking hard, but chopping wood or operating the wood splitter is also fun and again you're with mates. There are times when your waiting for 11, tea break time, but if your working hard everyone is! And chopping wood is weird, I learnt a variety of different axe swings, my favourite being a very macho over the head swing to be used on big tough rounds of wood. You also can tell how a round will split by looking at it, you know if it will split down the middle into 2 halves then off into segments, or if your going to have to chip away at the outside towards the middle. Heck I miss it!

Also the weather has a big impact as to if you are working or playing. One Saturday a lot of the community came together to move a load of hay bails and it was great fun. It was one of those winter days that are cold but the sky is bright blue and the sun is shinning. We formed chains and loaded the trailer. Then we met the tractor at the back field. Due to cow trampling this was a very muddy place and using a chain system again loaded the shed. It was hard to keep your footing. Then we all rode back to pick up more bails on the tractor trailer, which was quite a ride, we'd all been joking and laughing and working, now there was a mix of 4 year old children, teenagers and adults sat on the trailer all clinging on as the driver went as fast as they dared. Amber (my dog) was racing along behind. Again we used a chain to load the trailer and the teenagers all climbed onto the stacked hay and got a lift back to the back field a top this pile of bails. All fun, fun, fun!

As for the day I had to build 3 scaffold towers in the pouring rain, that was work. Yeah there was some climbing and joking, but it was work.

So from this I suppose what you’re suggesting is that 'work' and 'play' can be distinguished by whether they’re enjoyable or not? Would that be a right assumption? Were there elements of work-share that you always considered play whereas someone else always considered it 'work'? And if so, were you happy to take on that element of work-share so they didn't have to? Do you think that doing the things that you considered 'work' was beneficial not just to the commune but for you personally? I guess I’m alluding to some 'character building' shite? Do you believe in that after your experience in Laurieston?

When does play become work and work become play, good god man your obsessed! In the commune you're working to sustain your own way of life, or another's way of life, or yours and another’s way of life. In the society we live in, living there like that is a choice, and it doesn't make much sense going to live somewhere like Laurieston Hall if your not going to enjoy that choice. Or at least to me it makes no sense. So you go with the other 2 members of the maintenance group when it is pissing down with rain and erect 3 scaffold towers ready for maintenance week. You may not want to but it is a duty to yourself and the people you live with. Just like those days your average sucker really doesn't want to go to work but always do anyway because they feel obliged to their company (or organisation, or whatever). I guess part of it is seeing out a commitment. You are in a band, you put on gigs and you do a record label. It don't make you rich but you do it for the most part because you enjoy it, but there must be times when instead you’re committed to something, so you do it.

For me enjoyment is a big part of it. And there are times when I struggle through it but in the end I am glad I did it because it says something about who I am and is my way of making my world and hopefully yours a better place. And I think when I enjoy it, its play and when I don't, it's work. And both contribute to my development as a person and a worker.

So I believe that work and play are distinguishable through enjoyment, but there is more to it.

I wasn't keen on milking cows, but did it to alleviate the pressure from the few who did. Also I really liked the milk, the cheese, the cream and the yoghurt. Others clearly enjoyed working with the cows a lot more, but milking day was always my worst day. On the other hand I really liked making cheese, it was slow and stop-starty, but I liked hanging out in the dairy playing my tunes, reading my book and trying to get everything exactly right. There were others who made cheese who found it boring and would dick off from the dairy whilst the milk was heating and so on, but they still did it and enjoyed the cheese. As a consequence I did get asked to make the cheese a lot.

So I believe some of the work I did was beneficial to me, and some to the commune. The cow milking took the burden off others, it was a tiring day and I didn't really enjoy it. I know a lot more about cows and milk now though, which is interesting but not essential. Making the cheese worked for me, I liked the actual process and wanted to (and did) get better at making it, I liked taking ownership of the dairy, playing my music and reading whilst the milk heated or cooled and monitoring the temperatures exactly. I liked it when people would come and read what I had written in the cheese book because other cheese makers always found it interesting. Also I helped the commune, as other cheese makers who weren't so keen didn't have to do it that often, in the same way I wouldn't milk the cows often but was prepared to.

I believe doing work defines character, says something about the person you are and like all experiences you learn and grow and develop. Being at Laurieston helped me to define my beliefs and I learned a lot; from living with people to how to erect scaffold, form how to bake bread to how to chop wood. When you work, learn and reflect you build yourself and define yourself.

What kind of hobbies or pastimes did you have there, what was the role of technology in this area?

Well, watching TV. Me and two of the teenagers (Gus and Jack) watched the entire box set of Firefly (a sci-fi series) on DVD, match of the day was religiously watched and the second series of Green Wing was a massive social event. The house computer was a god send, I could keep an eye on Leeds via the Cops and Robbers forum, I became hooked to myspace and of course emailing folks. So in this technology was vital and accepted. We also used to play football quite a bit and I read a lot. Game play was also very popular and I played a lot of scrabble and dominos, there were regular bridge games but that wasn't for me. But I guess technology ain't as vital to them kinds of pass times.

The teenagers had X-boxes and played online games.

That's interesting. How much time did you spend on your own in leisure compared to doing your workshare? From the sounds of it workshare sounds like a relatively social exercise in Laurieston?

Work-share is definitely a social event, it is very rare that you work alone and indeed was the only way I socialised with some members of the commune. In my leisure time I spent a lot of time alone, the people close to my age had babies and their evenings would end shorter than mine, also evenings were a time to relax with your family and partner. That’s why I got the 2 teenagers in on Firefly, yes they enjoyed it but their leisure time was as free as mine so we could watch it all together. I spent a lot of leisure time with those two boys we helped to keep each other sane. Their mum thought it was great of me, I thought it was great of them to be prepared to include an old man.

So generally speaking work-share is a social event, on an evening people go into their living groups which are largely definable as family units. I spent a lot of my leisure time alone.

Also did any regular teams develop in the football games? Did you have any big competitions or sports day type events. Did members of the commune entertain each other (like people giving music concerts or putting on plays) or am I overestimating the size of these social gatherings?

When we played football it was often an organised thing so we would invite people from outside the commune as well as inside, this meant there was often a different mix. There was one guy I liked to play with because our styles complemented each other, if we were on the same team we did well, but we didn't insist on it. Also the teenage boys did well together (they were twins) and they were hard to separate. The biggest game of football I had at Laurieston was on a maintenance week before I went to stay there, it was competitive and bruising, for the record my side won and I scored two goals.

During maintenance weeks there was always at least one night round the fire when guitars, juggling equipment, poi and the like would come out and we'd entertain each other. Also over the winter when the people centre was shut we'd organise 'Railway Tavern nights'. We would take over the games room, light the fires and have an evening of fun. Some would just be small and involve the residents, a bit of wine and some game play. A couple were a bit larger and others were invited and usually involved a bit of a sing song.

Also we had 2 big parties whilst I was there with a cabaret room, band room and DJ room where a mix of residents and friends contributed to the nights' entertainment.

What have you taken from the experience, how has your approach to your daily routine altered from before and after your experience there?

Well before I went to live in the commune I had a well paid job managing a youth centre for Leeds City Council, which kept me busy, up early and home late. But it also gave me a large income and I used quite a lot of Drugs on a regular basis, ate out whenever I wanted and bought CDs, clothes and DVDs every week.

Since coming back I don't have a regular job so have less cash, I stop in bed more and get drunk everyday. I'm waiting now but not sure for what. I do voluntary work at a local community resource centre and at young persons project called HP Source. I help out from time to time at a volunteer run social centre called the Common Place and am involved the protest movement. Recently I was involved in a thing called Climate Camp, which campaigned to raise awareness on the issue of global warming and partook in action against the Drax power station, which is the biggest producer of CO 2 gases in the country. I also plan to spend some time at the Faslane nuclear submarine base before the end of the year. You can draw your own conclusions about what changes have taken place and why.

So here's a big one. What made you take the decision to leave Laurieston and if you were to set up a similar land co-op would there be anything you think would run better if done differently? With reference to Laurieston do you attribute the success of the co op to the people or to the structure of the way its run?

Yes the big one. Well I left Laurieston because I had to, my long stay was over. I can go back for another long stay in October with a view to a joining period. However I did leave earlier than I had to (only by a couple of weeks) because I was ready to come back to Leeds, which baffled some of the residents. I don't think I'll go back for a long stay this year as I'm not ready to commit long term to that way of life but hope to pop up over winter when the people centre is shut, because I love the people and the place.

If or when I get involved in a land co-op I will definitely take a lot of Laurieston with me, because I know it works and because it is my experience. I can't say what would run better because I was still on too steep a learning curve after 8 months there. I was lonely, but then how could that be fixed? I guess I wish my girlfriend of the time could have been more welcome to spend a longer time there because it wasn't that fair on either of us. Yes that's what I'd change, visitors’ partners would be welcome in the same way as a visitor.

The success of Laurieston I attribute to a mixture of things. Firstly the size of the place, if you're sick of someone or pissed off, there is loads of room for you without having to be disturbed. The place has changed a lot over the years, not significantly since my links with the place, but from its inception. As a lot of the people there have been committed for such a long time they have developed systems that work both for them and Laurieston. It is definitely organised and it definitely works. I have links with another commune where they only have one meeting a year and though it too is a great place, it is not the same. The success is a blend of time and commitment from the people and the space to be alone, or with your family. It is a labour of love, the work maybe hard but the living is good.

Bring Us Your Arms! exhibition book list

2006-10-31T05:51:00.000-08:00

Books on display included

'Utopia' by Thomas More

Textile Voices by Tims Smith and Olive Howarth

'Its a mean old scene; a history of modern Bradford from 1974" by Jim Greenhalf

'Biella' edited by Cristina Brigidini and Pierparide Tedeschi in 1990

'Guida Commerciale-Industriale Amministrativa di Biella' 1926

'Designing the Green Economy: The Postindustrial Alternative to Corporate Globalization' by Brian Milani

'The End of Work' by Jeremy Rifkin

"Bring Us Your Arms!" opening in Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy

2006-10-31T04:47:00.000-08:00

On 22nd October 2006 the "Your Arms!" project was first displayed as part of the Unidee in Progress open studio/exhibition at Cittadellarte in Biella.

Background information

Also in Italiano

The interactive vending machine was used to collect answers to
THE "YOUR ARMS!" QUESTIONNAIRE OF WORK AND LEISURE.

In return for their input participants received a previous user's answer to hang in the installation space plus a free bottle of Menebrea beer and a piece of Yorkshire Blue cheese with Grissini (Bielliese breadsticks) to consume whilst reading.

Next to the installation was a table of contextual writings and other information including interviews with Jamie Dodds about Lauriestone Hall and with Andy and Yvonne about experiences in UK and Biella, an essay by Andy Abbott, books, documentaries and Yvonne Carmichael's model of Biella, Crespi d'Adda and Saltaire combined.

The Your Arms! Questionnaire of Work and Leisure.

2006-10-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

As part of the initial phase of the Your Arms! project we collected information about the experiences and attitudes of Yorkshire and Italian people to work and play. To this end we created a simple survey asking questions about work, free-time, hopes and desires for the future and personal history. The online versions of the questionnaire are now closed but you can view some of the answers from this and the contributions to the "Survey Machine" here.

Anyone who wishes to fill in an alternate version of the questionnaire can find it available for download here. please complete, save and then email to us if you wish to contribute.

an open letter about the Your Arms! project in the Yorkshire Post. Click image to read.

an article in the Saltaire Sentinel. Click on the image to read.

an article in the Yorkshire Evening post. Click on the image to read.

an article about the Your Arms! project in the 'Eco di Biella' (a version of the questionnaire was printed below). Click image to read.

Origins of 'Your Arms!'

2006-09-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

"Your Arms!" was formed by artists Andy Abbott and Yvonne Carmichael whilst residents at Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, Italy. This was the thinking behind it....

"In a culture where we allow ourselves to be characterized by what we do for a living it is of little surprise to find that the social development of textile towns in Yorkshire and Italy bear many similarities and parallels."

a model of worker's villages combined by Yvonne Carmichael (Crespi' D'adda and Saltaire)

"As we enter a new paradigm in global economics however, these parallels surpass mere novelty and can become something of practical use to communities affected by the increasing mechanization of processes, and the resulting centralization of manufacture to areas with cheaper labour costs. Your Arms! project intends to gather and share information from people affected by these industrial and post-industrial issues with the hope that the collective knowledge and experience will both aid our understanding of our past and present situations and prepare for the impending change in how we work."

In this first phase of Your Arms! project Andy Abbott and Yvonne Carmichael spent the 4 months of the Unidee residency gathering information about the social history of Yorkshire with emphasis on the textiles industry, finding parallels in Biella and the surrounding area. This led to interesting discoveries about shared machinery and architecture, paternalism in the textiles industry, model workers villages and overseas competition.

The Funicolare in Biella by Yvonne Carmichael

Shipley Glen Funicular railway in Saltaire by Yvonne Carmichael

Abbott and Carmichael also focused on researching features that distinguish the Yorkshire and Biellese people, including unique local produce, artisan workers and local customs and games that help to present a truer picture of day to day life in these areas.

The most important method of research however relied on the input and interaction of the Yorkshire and Biellese community through interviews and questionnaires.

To this end Abbott and Carmichael staged
"Bring us Your Arms! Biella" an informal exhibition of research and contextualizing writings shown in an environment designed to encourage the Biellese and Italian people to contribute to the project through anecdotes and discussion.

This encouragement was achieved through the employment of a specially designed interactive survey machine and bribery with a Yorkshire/Biellese fusion aperitivo menu of cheese and beer.

Research archive for "Your Arms!" Nurope presentation

2006-08-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Notes made prior to presentation:

At present we are working on a presentation that will be based on the following structure

- a presentation of the research methods and findings from the Unidee leg of the Your Arms! project with focus on the parallels in social development, and the feedback we got from the Biellese.

- a brief overview of the current situations in Leeds and Bradford (and they're 'post-industrial' scenarios). We will talk about what is good and bad about each town and their differences from an anecdotal perspective. We hope to include interviews with Yorkshire locals to aid this.

- an overview of the future plans for Leeds and Bradford. This will include regeneration plans and economic strategies from the councils. We will also refer to the Yorkshire area as a whole. Again we hope to include interviews with local officials and residents.

- reference to the wider context in which these issues exist - ie global economic policies and issues of work, (Rifkin's End of Work, Bauwen's P2P and Human Evolution) and potential post industrial futures (Green Economies, empowering the Voluntary Sector). We hope to have interviews with people in Bradford and Leeds that may help illustrate practical implications of these ideas such as Oblong resource centre in Leeds and Bradford's 'Participatory Event'.

- the role of art projects to aid transitions in regeneration including artworks programme in Glasgow and the wider transition to a new mode of production (Your Arms!?). How will setting up a dialogue between global industrialised and post-industrial communities benefit those involved and what strategies should we employ to create this dialogue?

Over the next few weeks we intend to use this blog as an archive for the various research material we come across.

LIST OF LINKS

Yorkshire initiatives

Leeds Initiative

Culture Leeds

Construction Leeds

Bradford vision

Bradford 2020 Initiative

Bradford Vision video

Bradford 'Participatory Event' Documentary

Yorkshire Forward

Yorkshire Futures

Yorkshire Regional Economic Strategy

UK initiatives

Dept of Culture

Scarman Trust

Economic/Work Issues and Solutions

Oblong Resource Centre Leeds

Artworks Creative Community Bradford Arts projects

Brazilian Unemployment Insurance paper

short article about pro's for a Universal Wage

Basic Income Earth Network

P2P and Human Evolution essay

Jeremy Rifkin (author of The End of Work) website

The notes for the presentation given by Andy and Yvonne can be downloaded from here

Bring Us Your Arms! Bradford, July 2007

2005-08-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

As part of STIR festival in Bradford, Andy and Yvonne (and on the Saturday Vicky Lucas) invited passers-by to contribute a page each to a book of Bradford. Participants responded to questions about their lifestyle and attitudes to where they lived with drawings and marked where they lived on a giant map of the Bradford area that developed throughout the festival.

Photographs by Vicky Lucas

Reflections and action plan following Presentations March 2007

2005-08-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Reflections on the Nurope seminar

Issues surrounding art for social change
What is the role of the imagined and the unreal in aiding engagement with the physical and social environment? Does this separation, achieved through a ‘play element’, help us to examine the parts of the whole in isolation? Is it crucial to a re-imagining or reinvention that leads to re-definition or greater appreciation? If so, this leads to a broader definition of beneficial cultural activity.
The methodology for an art practice that perceives social-change as its aim can be better understood as a framework that can be over-layed on to projects rather than a rigid structure to be followed from beginning to end. Within this framework participation appeared as the unifying factor between successful projects. Participation is bred at the initial stages, and can only be achieved through the inclusion of ‘the audience/actors/benefactor’ at every level. It requires the appropriate rejection of detrimental hierarchies but also the shrewd employment of productive task-delegation. Singular authorship, individualised symbolism and metaphor, and egotism are opposing factors to this end.

Consequences for Biella
For Citta Studi and the Art of Excellence initiative/brand the current economic and social conditions of unemployment, industrial/manufacturing decline and poverty is a period in the province’s history to be escaped from as quickly as possible and then forgotten. The solution appears to be chiefly, if not solely, identified in strategies to bring money back into the region and increase employment. This is evading the root of the problem, which is that the current economical and social crisis is equally the result of the people of Biella’s lack of adaptability to a reality of less monetary wealth in the province.

There is a rich tradition of local produce, artisan skills and beautiful natural surroundings and resources. These have not been affected qualitatively by the decline of industry and are now being identified as ways in which to bring money back into the area through tourism and international exchange. However, there is an infinitely more useful potential for these qualities: that they begin (once more) to characterise the people of the area and feed into their identity. This post-industrial scenario can be crudely viewed as a renaissance of the pre-industrial Biella that will require a concerted effort to connect with distant generations of the area.

In this way the value of these Biellese resources (local produce, craftsmanship, natural and industrial environment) to the area can not only be judged on their potential to quantifiably develop the area (economically) but also in terms of their role to improve the quality of life of the Biellese – the amount of money and resources used to fund these initiatives should reflect this.

Similarly the initiatives that are employed to achieve this growth in the character and economy of the area should be as people-intensive as possible, that is, they should involve as many members of the community at every stage as possible rather than be run on an efficient model of ‘less labour and more productivity’. It will be vital to the sustained development of the Biellese province that the population of the area are given the appropriate tools with which to develop their identity, and this is an opportunity for access to these tools through qualitatively useful work.

The Biellese identity can no longer rely on the reputation of affluence and high employment, as these are factors subject to unpredictable flux in the new economy. The people of the area must be given the opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with their environment and history than the textiles-biased reality they are presently contained in. This will arm the Biellese people with the confidence and skills to adapt to their new future, be that one of affluence or one that requires a more radical redefinition of the provinces wealth.

In Bradford and Leeds there is evidence that this kind of qualitative ‘people-production’ is achieved must effectively through community-led initiatives. The human need for connection with our neighbour and our environment already exists, and people are willing to put their time into these activities without money as the chief reward. It is the role of a conscientious local authority to help develop and sustain activity to this end and to have the courage to entrust the form of these community activities to the community themselves. This is the only true method that breeds real participation.

Obviously there are methods that can be employed to encourage new community-led activity in the absence of a motivated community. These methods can take the form of strategies to draw influence from traditional community activities specific to the area that can be re-imagined to provoke greater participation. Another method to help motivate a community can be achieved through a dialogue with other communities that have been in similar situations. This dialogue may provoke activity through inspiration or education.

To this end we have developed a project that will aid the communication between communities in Leeds, Bradford and Biella. We intend to create an informal network of individuals and communities from these areas and help run book-making workshops where the individuals can document their histories, day-to-day activities, and desires for the future. These books can then be shared between the communities to help stimulate a dialogue, find solidarity or inspire community-led activity. Similarly we propose an object based version of the project utilising special vending machines installed in the three cities and also a website. In all cases the dialogue will be achieved mainly through visual means to break down the language barrier.

On the level of the ‘people in power’ we hope to create situations where officials and figures involved in community, cultural, regeneration activity from Leeds, Bradford and Biella can exchange ideas and experiences in a physical space. To us, this dialogue is of equal importance to that between members of the communities and has equally exciting potential.

Action Plan for Lead-up to Situation Leeds 07 Art in the public realm festival

During late-2006/early-2007 we conducted a number of more in-depth interviews and archival research about Council policies, local’s attitudes and community activity groups (source material listed above. From this research we came to the conclusion that a dialogue between Leeds, Bradford and Biella could be of benefit to the communities in the three cities and their districts.

We have been invited to present the development of the project so far as part of the Nomadic University international conference on “Philosophy and Enterprise” in Biella, in February. We will present an outline of the benefits on offer for each city that a dialogue would facilitate. This is as follows:

For Biella – an insight into potential future developments and the opportunity to inform decisions on which economic directions are available post manufacturing and textile-industry decline. For the workers and the community there will be the opportunity to look beyond their present situation and in so doing ease some anxiety through the sharing of concerns and worries that are presently affecting the community.

For Bradford – an exercise in redefining the ‘wealth’ of the city that may help paint a more positive picture for the locals and instil more confidence and pride in the area. Bradford will benefit from evidence that accounts for the ‘deeper wealth’ that the (generally disheartening) statistics of the city fail to represent, as Bradford possesses a community spirit and sense of identity lacking in many new cities that are deficient of such a strong industrial and cultural heritage.

For Leeds – a similar exercise in redefining wealth. This is a complex task in Leeds as its character varies dramatically from area to area. For this reason it is necessary to look at Leeds in its separate districts/towns, which it is possible to crudely reduce to the affluent and the poor. In both cases there is an issue of identity and belonging in the city that needs addressing, both of which can be tackled through a process of redefinition brought about through self-assessment and dialogue.

The Your Arms! project has received ACE funding to aid the realisation of the next stages based on those assumptions informed by our research. Our intended methods to stimulate a dialogue between Leeds, Bradford and Biella will be made from small steps. Our preference is that the project operates on the level of the individual rather than attempting to represent the attitudes and needs of entire communities, or provide ‘statistical proof’ of the best futures for the cities. Therefore we hope to realise the project through February to May concentrating in Holbeck/Beeston area of Leeds and how we can work effectively with these communities.

Our artistic strategies can be seen as three interlinking projects

a) Workshops with the communities South Leeds (and beyond). In these workshops, led by Andy and Yvonne, members of ‘the community’ will be openly invited to a book-making club intended to appeal to a range of ages and social backgrounds. In these workshops the attendees will be led through a process of story telling using visual tools that will communicate the participants attitudes, past experiences and hopes for the future. Each participant will complete a personalised individual book which will be not only a valuable document of their own identity, but also the visual material to begin the dialogue with other communities who will attend similar workshops in Leeds, Bradford and Biella

b) Interactive Story telling machines in South Leeds (and beyond). These interactive objects take the form of curious vending machines and complete a similar function to the book-making workshops, but are not time or place specific/dependent. The user is invited to contribute a drawing related to one of the categories of the machine (either work, play, family, future etc) and in return for their contribution they will receive a drawing entered into the machine by a previous user. At intervals the machine could be emptied of its contents and refilled with contributions from a machine that has been installed in a different area and used by a different community (in Leeds, Bradford or Biella).

c) A community led website of activity in South Leeds (and beyond). To document and promote the motions of the previous two projects a website will be set-up in order to host contributions from the individuals and communities. This will act as a ‘notice board’ for events as well as a public gallery for participants of the workshops and users of the vending machines. It will act as an immediate sounding board and visual forum for the communities involved, and as an additional access point for those with web-access who are unable to attend workshops or use a vending machine.

We intend to work closely with Artist House to help realise these projects and document our activity as part of their ‘Pavillion’ project. We are open to the possibility of collaborating or sharing knowledge with other artist-led and community-led initiatives. We hope that through this, and the additional exposure and support we will receive through the Situation Leeds 07 public art festival, that we will be able to identify effective methods of working and funding that will ensure the sustainability and growth of the project, helping it to fulfil its potential.

Your Arms at Bradford Mela June 2008

2005-07-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

Your Arms! at Saltaire festival

2003-08-07T03:11:00.000-07:00

As part of the Open House scheme for Saltaire Arts Trail (part of Saltaire festival 2007) Andy and Yvnonne transformed the living room of 44 Whitlam St to display an archive of the entire Your Arms! project. Visitors were given a talk through the project and offered the chance to add to the "Bring Us Your Arms! Saltaire." book.

An MP3 of one of these talks by Andy can be downloaded here

Andy also made a short film of the open houses on the Arts Trail

Your Arms! Archive Book

2003-08-05T04:08:00.000-07:00

For the exhibition at Artist House in Leeds, in May 2005 Andy and Yvonne made an archive of the previous research and activity in the project. This was displayed in two ways - firstly as a primary-school-esque montage adorning the gallery windows and also in portable form as an A6 booklet, the reverse of which acted as a recruitment poster to kick-start the "Your Arms!" network of drawing workshops.

Bring Us Your Arms Bradford - Completed Book

2003-08-05T02:33:00.000-07:00

During the STIR festival many people contributed to the Bradford picture book. Below is a slideshow of some of the drawings made over the two days.

This is a print-version of the map showing where the contributors live.

"Bring us Your Arms! Leeds" Artist House, May 2007

2003-08-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

'Bring us Your Arms! Leeds' took take place at Artist House, Holbeck, Leeds between 16 May - 9 June 2007

Alongside works by Bryan and Laura Davies and Tom Watson exploring Holbeck, Your Arms! displayed an archive of their project and piloted new drawing and personal book-making workshops. These involved the use of a bobbin-laden 'Automated Book Distributor'. Visitors to the opening "Artist's Breakfast" on Saturday morning were treated to spread of cakes, tea and coffee with a slight Yorkshire-Italian flavour.

images by Jonathan Turner and Bryan and Laura Davies

Following the exhibition Andy and Yvonne redesigned the self-led book making workshop to fit a stall as part of Holbeck Gala where it rained horrendously but acted as a not very dry run for "Bring us Your Arms! Bradford"

Bring us Your Arms! Leeds books

2001-08-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

At the exhibition in Artist House in May 2007 Andy and Yvonne organised a user-led book-making workshop where participants made picture books about where they lived and what they did. Over 50 people completed books during the exhibition a few examples of which are viewable below as slide-shows.

Bring us Your Arms! Holbeck Gala, June 2007

1999-08-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

It rained so hard the Gala was shifted inside and the stalls were sent home. 3 kindly soles contributed to the Holbeck book though, plus the African tribal dance that took place in one of the marquees was the greatest performance of all time.

a slideshow of the completed Holbeck Gala book

Responses to the Your Arms! Questionnaire of Work and Leisure.

1987-08-07T01:41:00.000-07:00

In the initial phase of the Your Arms! project Andy and Yvonne distributed a questionnaire through newspapers, websites and at the exhibition in Cittadellarte. The responses were hung in an installation some of which can be viewed by scrolling down this page.