Shy Bairns Fill The Void by Shy Bairns

Erin we ready to start?

Erin at first we thought a lot about what we’d already done and the previous ways we’d collaborated in different projects, and concluded we always work with other people / institutions but had never properly investigated the ways in which we work together as a group

Izzy im good to go! George Yee Eleanor ye I’m fine!

George We had just finished making work for the Multipack show at bunker gallery which analysed how other collectives function together

Izzy so! jerwood commission! collaborate! George First of all maybe selection?

Eleanor Yeh it was good to get time to be able to reflect on us

Izzy yeah! jerwood had asked curators from around the uk to suggest 2 (?) artist groups each so zoe watson from the holden gallery in manchester put us forward!

Izzy also its worth mentioning this is an exhibition opportunity but also with artistic development support and budget which we found v interesting and nice

George We got emailed about this from jerwood saying we’d been nominated to apply Which is a process we’ve never been involved in before

Erin yeah, £1,000 production and £1,000 artistic development Eleanor £££££ very useful

Erin yeah we’ve always been the one to put ourselves forward for things

Erin It’s nice to have two separate budgets and not have to compromise on either aspect of the project Cos that can be v detrimental to the work produced and the wellbeing of the artists

George Zoe selected us and Catflap who are a really cool collective who run gallery space Bunker in mcr

Izzy it was the artistic development thing that really inspired what we wanted to do as the work

Erin it’s nice to have someone else do the initial work of thinking whether we’re good enough and whether this is an appropriate opportunity etc etc

Eleanor It was a privilege that we could be paid to take time and properly look into ourselves as a working group and how we can improve on ourselves and our working relationship

George Aye I never thought about it that way — half the work is psyching yourself up to apply for something isn’t it Izzy then we had to pitch an idea for the exhibition - they said it didnt have to be related to the theme of collaboration but we’re not very creative

Izzy so we wanted to make the work for the exhibition and the accompanying artist development visible and equal. hence exhibiting our artistic development

Eleanor yeh - highlight the importance of artistic practices and artist wellbeing and make that the main focus rather than the “finished product” we’d usually aim for in a project

George It’s easy to run off with your own practice or get stuck with One Job in a collective Erin I was v keen to learn things from you guys because I knew you’d be able to teach me in a way I could really learn because we know each other so well

Erin We came up with the term ‘fill the void’ which is v dramatic v us but essentially we wanted to look at the holes in our practice find out why they were there and try to fill them

Izzy This kind of learning together led into the relationships category

George Grace And I think often to holes in everyone’s practice when it comes to mental wellbeing etc

Erin relationships and wellbeing focuses on us as a group, how we exist together as friends Izzy making sure we’re Okay

Erin after having that initial idea I think we realised there were a lot of holes and

Eleanor the relationships category was really important for me

Izzy we had a lot of ideas for sure

Izzy emerging artists wellbeing is just a bad scene so we wanted to take time as a group to focus on that and like see it as part of the artistic development process and not something that sits separately

Erin once we refined our initial ideas they kind of fell into categories: Creative skills, Relationships and wellbeing Izzy and group development

Eleanor I think that it sounds so obvious to say a good working relationship in a group is the key, but to be able to get time to look into this and really focus on what we can do for each other is so important kinda acknowledging the difficulties of working together

Erin do we wanna talk more about each category? Izzy creative skills looks at technical things we arent great at Erin Creative skills were easy to come up with because there were so many things we wanted to try - screenprinting, lino, book binding, design skills like typesetting etc

Erin I think relationships was something that we’ve perhaps avoided in the past? We’ve always known each other as friends and colleagues all at the same time because the group formed so soon after we met, so we’ve never been one without the other. There are times when we take our friendship for granted and forget that it also needs active work

George I think the most important part of this category is that for the most part we’ve identified skills each person has that the others don’t Izzy yeah it was a lot of skill sharing

Izzy then the last one was group development is that like tutorials

Erin group development was things like crits from other people, critiquing ourselves

Eleanor it seems daft saying that finding time to do these in our practice was hard but it just is we’ve kinda stuck to what we know for a long time

George and we wanna visit places we admire and get advice from people who’s opinion we value

Izzy that’s why it feels it

Eleanor Getting the chance to talk w artists will b super important

Erin We should mention that it’s important to do these activities for ourselves, but also important to document them

Erin we’d included some online courses called thing like ‘ how to deal with difficult working relationships’ and ‘how to have productive meetings’ etc

Izzy yeah we’re ~making visible artists development~

George I want someone to rip our practice to pieces so we can bond licking each other wounds xx

Erin cos you don’t see it enough and it’s important and we want to be able to share it with people

Erin We also had things like making a 5 year plan for the group, thinking about the future etc

George Grace I very much liked the summation of “like our Instagram stories? You’ll love the hardback version!”

George Yeah like Serious Stuff

Izzy i do think its super important to see artists learning in galleries

Eleanor I think getting a serious cap on is good for us because we aren’t just comedians

George Grace Is there anything else we need to detail in the intro?

Erin I think it’s a mix of interrogating our practice now, and looking to the future to see where the practice might go

Izzy we’re going to do a second chat at the end of the book to see how it all went!

George Grace And Not Serious Stuff like all designing a studio on sims and seeing what is in all our imaginations

Eleanor good2reflect

Erin I’m new to the sims so idk how mine’s gonna be!

Izzy Let jerwood know if we were a good investment

Izzy anyway! its a long list lots to do

George Grace See u all on the flip side

George Grace It’s all well and good to come up with the idea but trying to do something that we aren’t already doing was hard cos there’s reasons we aren’t doing it

A Conversation With: Zoe Watson Zoe Watson is the assistant curator at The Holden Gallery. She nominated Shy Bairns for the Jerwood Collaborate! commission so we asked her why:

I wanted to champion exciting artist collectives coming out of Manchester. I am particularly impressed with how both Catflap and Shy Bairns have been so productive during / since graduating Manchester School of Art. The first few years out of that bubble can be the hardest and most intimidating, but both groups have been really active and continue to develop through workshops, commissions, and running an exhibitions programme. As well as a bond over artistic practice, it is clear both collectives operate through friendship, support for each other, and a need to share and learn, which are all great qualities. What was the process of nomination like? (weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never been nominated to apply for something before! Like were you nominated to nominate us? Who nominates the nominators! etc)

I was asked by Harriet Cooper (head of Visual Arts at Jerwood Arts) if I would be interested in nominating two collectives for the show, which I was delighted to! I was curious to learn who the other 11 nominators were, and from that list it was clear that Jerwood wanted to acknowledge and represent regional art scenes alongside London. The nominating process has really encouraged me to discover more about the shortlisted groups and make future visits. I am a big fan of Jerwoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to funding opportunities for artists, by selecting artist advisers who also contribute to identifying talent and help with the selection process. Once again, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collaborative, democratic, resourceful and enriches diversity.

Conversation

Why did you select us and Catflap?

What is your experience of collaboration? (how does this relate to what you do as a curator etc, why are you interested in it as a topic within the art world)

My role covers curating, research, and events and outreach, admin tasks such as insurance and loans, marketing and press, finance and budgets. I’m the only dedicated member of staff at the gallery, but I’m always collaborating with artists, designers, technicians, fabricators, and specialist researchers. It is a really engaging process and I am constantly learning. Collaboration as an art topic is particularly appealing because people contribute their own experience and knowledge towards problem solving, support, stimulation and learning, and the creative outcome can be unexpected. In my own role I have had the chance to collaborate with artists on upcoming solo exhibitions at the gallery, through the preparation and planning of the show and the development of producing new work. It’s the most enjoyable part of my job, and it’s hugely rewarding to help realise artists’ ideas. What do you do to ~develop your creative practice~?

My practice has changed recently since I’ve had the opportunity to run my own programme at the Holden Gallery. I have shifted the exhibitions to focus on solo presentations of work as well as a performance programme running in between exhibitions called Interruptions. This has enabled me to work much closer with artists who are able to be on site, and that exchange is a really important part of my work. I’ve been on a personal pledge to visit a number of cities where I’m not familiar with the art scene and do studio visits to get to know artists working all across the country. I was awarded a mentoring bursary from a-n this year, which has meant regular mentoring sessions with independent curator Lucy Day over the course of a year. This has been an invaluable experience and I will continue to reach out and seek advice and shared experiences from curator peers and other mentor like figures.

Lesson

George Teaching Izzy How To Bind a Book Using The Coptic Stitch Method.mp4

Erin and Elle Watching a Video of George Teaching Izzy How To Bind a Book Using The Coptic Stitch Method To Also Bind a Book.mp4 4 views

Shy Bairns

Published on Sep 9, 2019

In this episode of our series Shy Bairns Fill The Void: Developing Our Creative Practice George will be teaching Izzy how to bind a hardback book. Erin and Elle will then watch our video, and try to copy what we’re doing without any real instruction. This is a way to test George’s bookbinding skills, to test Izzy’s video editing skills, and to test Erin’s patience. You will need: Paper (really as much as you want) Bone folder (rulers will mark and rip) 2 pieces of backed greyboard (back in fancy paper or cloth) 1 needle (maybe a curved one but it doesn’t matter really) Waxed thread (George forgot to give Erin and Elle wax) 1 awl (pointy thing) Enjoy these confused faces and your new books! Please remember to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this tutorial!

Apolog y Languages Working with other people is really hard. A lot of the time, wires get crossed, tensions get high, and feelings get hurt. An important part of collaboration is learning to move beyond these moments of frustration. This quiz by Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas breaks down apologies into five different types. Learn your co-workers apology language and (maybe) you’ll be able to smooth things over faster.

Some of the possible responses to each of the 20 scenarios are similar. Focus less on their similarity and more on choosing the response that most appeals to you, and then move on to the next item. Allow 10 to 15 minutes to complete the profile. Take it when you are relaxed, and try not to rush through it. When you have completed all 20, add up the number of each letter from A- E and put results in the appropriate blank at the end of the profile. Your spouse failed to acknowledge your wedding anniversary. (If you are not married, assume you are in this scenario.) They should say: A I can’t believe I forgot. You and our marriage are so important to me. I am so sorry. B There is no excuse for me forgetting. What was I thinking? C What can I do to prove my love for you? D You can bet I won’t forget next year! I’m going to circle the date on my calendar! E I know you are hurt, but can you ever forgive me? Your mother knew how you felt about a matter and knowingly went against your wishes. She should say: A I knew how you felt but went against your wishes anyway. I wish I had not done that. B If I had only thought about what I was doing, I would have realized it was wrong. C What can I do to regain your respect? D I won’t take your feelings for granted in the future. E Will you please give me another chance? You were in a crisis and needed help, but your friend ignored your need. They should say: A I should have been there for you. I’m so sorry l let you down. B I let you down when you needed me the most. I made a terrible mistake. C Saying ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t feel like it is enough. What more can I say or do to mend our friendship? D I realize now that I could have been more help to you, and I promise that I’ll do everything I can do to help you if ever you are in trouble again. E I am sincerely sorry and ask you to forgive me. Your sister made an insensitive remark about you. She should say: A That was so thoughtless of me. I wish I had been more considerate of your feelings. B I know what I said was wrong and that I hurt your feelings. C Would you allow me to retract what I said? I would like a chance to restore your reputation. D While I will likely say wrong things again in the future, what I’ve learned from this experience will help me avoid hurting you with insensitive comments. E I blew it! Can you forgive me? Your spouse lashed out in anger against you when you had done no apparent wrong. They should say: A I wish I had not hurt you by yelling at you. I feel so bad for how I treated you. B I was angry, but I had no right to speak to you that way. You did not deserve that.

C What can I do or say to make things right between us? D I’m afraid that I’ll do this again, and I don’t want to. Help me think of ways to avoid blowing up like this in the future. E I am truly sorry for yelling at you. You were proud of your accomplishment, but your friend acted as if it was trivial. They should say: A You needed me to share your excitement, and I let you down. I hate that I didn’t respond more appropriately. B I spoiled your celebration by not being happy for you. I could make excuses, but really, I have no good excuse for ignoring your achievement. C Is it too late for us to celebrate your accomplishment? I want to make this up to you. D I promise I’ll notice and celebrate your accomplishments in the future. I’ve learned a hard lesson. E I know I failed you before, but will you please forgive me again? Your business partner failed to consult with you on an important matter of mutual interest. They should say: A I know now that I hurt you very badly. I am truly sorry for what I did. B I really blew it this time. I was wrong to not include you in this decision. You have a right to be upset with me. C Is there anything I can do to make up for what I did? D In the future, I plan to consult with you no matter what. I won’t bypass you in making decisions again. E You have every right to hold this against me, but will you please forgive me? A coworker unintentionally poked fun at you and embarrassed you in front of others in your workplace. They should say: A I deeply regret embarrassing you like I did. I wish I could go back in time and say something more appropriate. B That was so thoughtless of me. I thought I was being funny, but obviously, hurting you like I have is not funny. C Is there any way I can repair our relationship? Would you like for me to apologize to you in front of the staff? D It’s easy to take others’ feelings for granted, but I want to be more considerate of you and others in the future. Will you help hold me accountable? E I didn’t intend to hurt you, and now all I can do is ask for your forgiveness and try not to repeat my same mistake again. You were trying to tell your friend something important, and then acted disinterested. They should say: A I feel really bad that I didn’t listen to what you were saying. I know how it feels to have something important to say, and I regret that I didn’t listen. B Listening is such an important part of a strong relationship, but once again, I blew it. You needed me to hear you, and I basically just ignored your need.

C Can we back up and try again? You talk, and I’ll listen. You’ll have my undivided attention. D I messed up this time, but in the future, I promise to give you my full attention when you say you have something important to tell me. E I’m sorry I wasn’t listening. You don’t have to forgive me, but I hope you will. Your brother learned that he had previously been wrong about a significant point of conflict between the two of you. He should say: A I am upset with myself over how I handled our disagreement. My behavior threatened our relationship and that scares me. I regret the way I acted. B I admit that I was wrong. If I had only known then what I know now, I could have saved us a lot of heartache. C What can I do to mend our relationship? I feel like I need to do or say something to restore your respect for me. D If we disagree over an issue in the future, I plan on gathering all the facts before I make any D judgments. That may save us from unnecessary D arguing. E I apologize. Will you please forgive me? Although you had expressed your annoyance with a particular habit many times before, your spouse continued exhibiting the behavior to spite you They should say: A I’ve taken this too far. I’m very sorry for not being A more considerate of your wishes. I wouldn’t like A it if you did that to me. B OK, I admit it; I am annoying you on purpose, B and that’s neither funny nor fair. I need to act B more mature than that. C Saying ‘I’m sorry’ won’t take back the fact that C I’ve knowingly tried to annoy you. What more C can I do to win back your favor? D I have gotten into the habit of disregarding your D wishes, and I don’t want to go on doing that. D From now on, I’m going to make extra effort to D honor your wishes. E I’ve tried your patience, and now I’m asking you E to forgive me. Will you allow me a fresh start in E honoring your requests? Your father gave you the ‘silent treatment’ as a way of making you feel guilty about something on which the two of you disagreed. He should say: A You are an adult, and I feel really bad about A controlling your decisions. I don’t want to risk A damaging our relationship. B There is no denying that I’m guilty. I should A have handled the situation with more fairness A and honesty. C I would like to make this up to you somehow, A and I want to keep talking with you. May I take A you out to dinner? D In the future, I’m going to be more honest about A how I feel without trying to make you feel guilty A for not agreeing with me. E It’s your choice, but I really do hope you will A forgive me.

A business associate broke a promise and caused you to miss an important deadline. They should say: A I am so sorry. I promised you I’d come through, A and I not only let you down but caused you to A miss your deadline. I know this jeopardizes your A work and our partnership. B I’ve really messed up this time. You missed your A deadline because of me. C I don’t know what I can do at this point, but is A there any way I can compensate you for my part A in your missed deadline? D It’s too late to do anything about it now, but I A want so badly to avoid this type of error again. A Let’s talk about what I can do in the future to A make good on my promises. E I don’t expect you to forgive me considering A the trouble I’ve caused you, but I would greatly A appreciate it if you would forgive me. Your neighbour asked you to wait on them outside the arena, but they never showed up for the concert. They should say: A I’m so sorry you had to stand there waiting on A me. You are important to me, and I should have A honored you and your time by being there when A I said I would be. B You stood there waiting on me, thinking I would A show up at any moment, and I let you down. If I A had only managed my time differently, I would A have been there. That is totally my fault. C Let’s go to another concert, and this time, I’m A paying for your ticket as a way of apologizing for A standing you up last time. D In the future, I will manage my time and prioritize A my schedule so that I tend to our friendship like A I should. E Our friendship really is important, and I hope A you won’t give up on me. Will you forgive me for A standing you up? A friend’s child broke one of your prized possessions while visiting in your home. Your friend should say: A I know this was one of your prized possessions, A and I feel terrible about what has happened. B I should have been watching my child more A closely. It was my fault for not paying more A attention to what was going on. If I had just done A a couple of things differently, this would not A have happened. C May I pay you for this special item, or can I A purchase it somewhere for you? Is there some A way I can replace this? D I promise that I will be more protective of your A possessions in the future and will not allow my A child to play in ‘off limits’ areas when we’re in A your home. E You have a right to be upset, but I hope that you A can forgive me and remain my friend despite A your disappointment. A church member blamed you with sole responsibility for the failure of a committee project although they shared leadership duties of the committee. They should say: A I can’t believe I blamed you like I did. I really am A embarrassed about my behavior, and I’m sorry. B I had just as much to do with the failure of this A project as you or anyone else. I should have A admitted my shortcomings. C There is no excuse for my behavior, and the only A way I’m going to feel remotely better is to make A this right between us. What do you need me to A do or say? D I’m either going to learn how to treat my team A members more appropriately, or I’m not going A to lead any more committees. I want to grow A from this experience. E Please forgive me. I was wrong to blame you, A and I pray that you will forgive me. Despite their promise to keep your secret, your coworker broke your trust in them by telling others in the office. They should say: A If only I had thought about how much damage I A was doing by telling your secret. I feel so bad for A not having taken my promise more seriously.

B I told you I would keep your secret, and I broke A my promise and damaged your trust in me. I A made a terrible mistake. C Help me know what I should do to restore your A trust in me. D It may take you some time to rebuild your trust in A me, but I’ll be working hard from now on to A prove that I am trustworthy. E You don’t have to answer immediately, but will A you consider forgiving me for making this A mistake? Your teammate spoke negatively about you to others on the team. They should say: A What I said was mean and unkind. I regret what A I said, and I wish that I could take it back. B I had a bad attitude and didn’t once think about A your positive attributes. I should have thought A more about what I was saying. C I want to do anything I can to correct my A mistake. Shall I apologize in front of the team? D If I am ever again upset with you, I promise to A gather my thoughts and approach you directly A and respectfully. E You may not be able to forgive me, at least not A now, but I hope you can forgive me someday. Despite your having several positive accomplishments, your supervisor only criticized your performance. They should say: A I am so sorry that I focused on the minor flaws A of your performance. I regret that I didn’t A encourage you more. B I neglected to compliment you on the many A strengths of your performance, and you may A have felt that all your practice was for nothing. A As your supervisor, I should be more A forthcoming with praise for all the good work A that you do. C How can I earn your forgiveness? Shall I write A down the strengths of your performance? D You deserve recognition for your hard work. I A will try to be more balanced next time. E I hope this won’t damage our relationship. Will A you accept my apology? At lunch, your server dropped food on you and ruined your shirt. They should say: A I am so sorry about that. I feel bad that I’ve A ruined your shirt and inconvenienced you like A this. B I am normally pretty careful, but I wasn’t careful A enough this time. I accept full responsibility for A this mess. C I would like to reimburse you for your dry A cleaning or for the cost of a new shirt. What A seems most appropriate to you? D This has taught me a hard lesson. You can bet A that I’ll be even more careful in the future when A serving guests. E Can you please forgive me for my carelessness?

Results Add up the amount of times you answered each letter. The letter you preferred most frequently is your primary apology language. The highest score possible for any of the individual languages is 20. If you scored the same amount of points for two or more languages, then you may feel equally receptive to two or more of the apology languages.

A Expressing Regret ____________ B Accepting Responsibility ____________ C Making Restitution ____________ D Genuinely Repenting ____________ E Requesting Forgiveness ____________

Expressing Regret To people who respond best to apologies that include explicitly expressing regret, the apology must be based on emotions -- the apologiser feels genuinely regretful for what they have done. The words ‘I’m sorry’ are very important! Accepting Responsibility Excuses will not stand for people who need responsibility to be taken in an apology! They need to hear that the other person knows what they did was wrong, and that it was their fault. Making Restitution For some people, words aren’t enough to make up for a wrongdoing. Making resititution is about making it up to the person you have wronged. It’s offering to work longer to correct the mistake, cooking dinner for someone you have ignored, replacing an object that was broken. Genuinely Repenting Repentance is similar to expressing regret, but comes with an addition. To people with this preference, the only good apology is changed behaviour; it comes with a plan for how to prevent this from happening again. “I’m sorry I was late. Next time I will set an alarm and a reminder the day before.” Requesting Forgiveness The final apology type involves acknowledging failure, risking rejection and handing over control to the person who has been wronged. Though you may think requesting forgivness is implicit in any apology, some people need to hear the words “Will you forgive me?”

Quiz by Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas. When Sorry Isn’t Enough, 2013. Moody Press.

Shy Bairns Learn from their Apology Languages We always piss each other off! We need to learn to apologise! We used our quiz results to write the ideal fantasy apology.

Dear Izzy, I am so sorry that I have upset you. I know that what I have done has caused you great harm and it pains me that I have hurt your feelings. I have been thinking about it a lot and I have learnt a lot about myself and my relationships through this process. I’ve been researching, and, if you would be interested, I have a 70 point plan for how I can begin to make it up to you. Here are the main points. Firstly, I would like to spend some time with you to repair our relationship. I can take you out for a nice meal or maybe I could bring food over to yours and we can just hang out there. We can play it by ear because I know it’ll depend on your energy levels — I don’t mind a low key thing or having to wait a while until you’re ready, I’d just really like to treat you in some way. I have already signed up to a six week How Not To Be An Arsehole course and I’m really optimistic about the outcome. It teaches really important skills like being nice to people, empathy, and respecting your friends. I think I will really benefit from it and I hope you will reap the rewards with me. I’ve also started a reading list of books that I believe will help me become a better friend to you. I appreciate I have a lot to learn, and I intend to put in the effort to learn these things. I have already grown a lot from this experience and I am determined to never repeat my mistakes again. I feel so terrible for hurting you. I believe my plan will enable me to be the best friend I can be for you. Thank you for your patience.

Hey g, How are you feeling? I’m really sorry for earlier. I was a bit of a wanker. I know it must have upset you, and it wasn’t fair. Some personal things have been effecting me today, but I know that is not an excuse and I should never have taken it out on you. I was thinking about how to make it up to you and I was thinking I can take you to yo sushi. You can get as many plates as you want. Let’s hang out, we can talk through this and helpfully figure out a way to stop it from happening again? I can apologise in person and we can work out what I need to change. I’ve got that book you wanted to lend last month too! Love you x

Development

1. What’s been your most embarrassing moment? 2. Who do you look up to the most? 3. What would be your perfect day? 4. What’s your biggest fear? 5. How do you like to be comforted when you’re sad 6. What’s your all-time favorite memory? 7. What’s your favorite thing you own and why? 8. Who was the last person who made you cry and why? 9. Where do you hope to be five years from now? 10. If money was no object, what would you buy? 11. When have you felt the most proud? 12. When have you felt the most challenged? 13. Do you have any regrets? If so, what are they? 14. When was the moment in your life you laughed the hardest? 15. Which celeb would you want as your other BFF ? 16. What did you dream about last night? 17. Out of all your family members, who are you closest to? 18. What do you do when no one else is around? 19. Where do you want to travel the most? 20. What’s one thing most people don’t know about you? 21. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? 22. What book has impacted you the most? 23. If you were going to get some ink, what would you choose and why? 24. If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

55 Important Questions To Ask Your Best Friend __ With GIFs Teen Vogue Think you know everything there is to know about your bestie? Well, you probably know a lot, but you can always go deeper. These questions to ask your best friend will help you get to know them even more. From silly to serious, these 55 questions are sure to bring out all the feels and hopefully a stronger bond between the two of you. So, have a BFF date, order some pizza, and go through these questions together. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ll learn about each other that you didn’t already know.

25. Do you want to have kids one day? How many? 26. What’s the best present you ever received? 27. If you had to choose only one, would pick a dog or a cat? 28. Do you believe in aliens? 29. If you were President, what’s the first thing you would work to change? 30. What college major are you thinking of choosing and why?

40. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 41. What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you? 42. What’s your favorite way to exercise? 43. Do you like roller coasters? 44. Describe yourself in only three words? 45. What’s your most embarrassing moment?

31. What band would you listen to for the rest of your life?

46. Do you believe in soulmates?

32. You just won $10,000 — what are you going to do with

48. What’s your favorite holiday and why?

the money? 33. What’s your go-to dish when you have to make dinner?

49. When you can’t sleep, what keeps you up at night?

34. What’s the worst you’ve ever been physically hurt?

50. If you were an animal, what would you be?

35. What’s your earliest childhood memory?

51. If you had to create an alter ego for yourself,

36. If you had to live in another time period, what would you choose?

who would it be? 52. Do you have any phobias?

37. Who was your very first crush?

53. What are your top three biggest pet peeves?

38. What foreign language(s) would you want to master

54. What has your hardest goodbye in life been

and why? 39. What’s your all-time favorite dessert?

so far? 55. What would your dream vacay consist of?

Workshop: Meghan Graydon Darby Elle sat down with Meghan to talk about her creation process and learn some new skills Meghan Graydon Darby is a textiles-based artist from the North East. Her work explores elements from her surroundings, referring to the traits of her identity and culture, and turning them into playful illustrations and unusual digital collages. She works via mixed media, often with yarn to produce textured colourful rugs, and explores experimental laser cutting techniques to turn elements of her drawings into physical objects.

Lesson

We wanted to meet with Meghan as we think her exploration into her own interests and upbringing is really refreshing. She has a very specific style to her work, creating stamps from textures on photoshop and using her own style to draw from found imagery, combining these with sampled colours and focusing on materials and forms. We’ve all worked within Photoshop but in many different ways to Meghan. To start the workshop she firstly prompted me to source images from books she provided that she’s worked with for her own designs in the past. I think this was a nice touch, being able to scan through her influenced works and recreate them myself. The first task she set was to colour pick from my chosen images, which gave a good starting point when I came to recreate a piece from them. She then encouraged me to look for specific textures that stand out to me, and showed me how to make stamps in Photoshop to use these for my piece. Not only did I learn the actual techniques on Photoshop like stamping, drawing and collaging, but I learned a completely different approach to digital collaging than I’d explored before. Meghan’s work is playful and fun, and I got to see the curiosity and care that goes into her research and making processes, a 10/10 workshop!

Typesetting is the composition of text It originally derives from the era of letterpress when physical type had to be set manually in order to print

All spaces between characters should be as even as possible

Tracking applies spacing between all characters equally

Tracking can be used to affect the visual density of a body of text

Leading is the distance between two lines of type

Your leading should be a minimum of 1.25 times greater than the font size

A widow is a very short line at the end of a paragraph or column

Widows should be avoided and can be corrected by adjusting your layout

An orphan is a very short line at the beginning of a column or a page

Orphans should be avoided and can be corrected by adjusting the layout

The rag is the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of text

The rag should be as smooth and even as possible

Hyphenation is the breaking of words between lines of text

Automatic hyphenation should be surpessed in headings and text bodies

Rivers are gaps in the text which appear to run through a paragraph

Rivers can be removed by adjusting the spacing between letters or words

Line length should be kept short in order to increase legibility

Line lengths should contain between 45-65 characters for optimum reading

Lesson

Kerning is the process of adjusting the spaces between individual characters

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Elle

Full he none no side. Uncommonly surrounded considered for him are its. It we is read good soon. My to considered delightful invitation announcing of no decisively boisterous. Did add dash woods deficient man concluded additions resources. Or landlord packages overcame distance smallest in recurred. Wrong maids or be asked no on enjoy. Household few sometimes out attending described. Lain just fact four of am meet high. Denote simple fat denied add worthy little use. As some he so high down am week. Conduct esteems by cottage to pasture we winding. On assistance he cultivated considered frequently. Person how having tended direct own day man. Saw sufficient indulgence one own you inquietude sympathize. Departure so attention pronounce satisfied daughters am. But shy tedious pressed studied opinion entered windows off. Advantage dependent suspicion convinced provision him yet. Timed balls match at by rooms we. Fat not boy neat left had with past here call. Court nay merit few nor party learn. Why our year her eyes know even how. Mr immediate remaining conveying allowance do or. Sigh view am high neat half to what. Sent late held than set why wife our. If an blessing building steepest. Agreement distrusts mrs six affection satisfied. Day blushes visitor end company old prevent chapter. Consider declared out expenses her concerns. No at indulgence conviction particular unsatiable boisterous discretion. Direct enough off others say eldest may exeter she. Possible all ignorant supplied get settling marriage recurred. Affronting discretion as do is announcing. Now months esteem oppose nearer enable too six. She numerous unlocked you perceive speedily. Affixed offence spirits or ye of offices between. Real on shot it were four an as. Absolute bachelor rendered six nay you juvenile.Vanity entire an chatty to.

Izzy

Full he none no side. Uncommonly surrounded considered for him are its. It we is read good soon. My to considered delightful invitation announcing of no decisively boisterous. Did add dash woods deficient man concluded additions resources. Or landlord packages overcame distance smallest in recurred. Wrong maids or be asked no on enjoy. Household few some times out attending described. Lain just fact four of am meet high. Denote simple fat denied add worthy little use. As some he so high down am week. Conduct esteems by cottage to pasture we winding. On assistance he cultivated considered frequently. Person how having tender direct own day man. Saw sufficient indulgence one own you inquietude sympathise. Departure so attention pronounce satisfied daughters am. But shy tedious pressed studied opinion entered windows off. Advantage dependent suspicion convinced provision him yet. Timed balls match at by rooms we. Fat not boy neat left had with past here call. Court nay merit few nor party learn. Why our year hereyes know even how. Mr immediate remaining conveying allowance do or. Sigh view am high neat half to what. Sent late held than set why wife our. If an blessing building steepest. Agreement distrusts mrs six affection satisfied. Day blushes visitor end company old prevent chapter. Consider declared out expenses her concerns. No at indulgence conviction particular insatiable boisterous discretion. Direct enough off others say eldest may exeter she. Possible all ignorant supplied get settling marriage recurred. Affronting discretion as do is announcing. Now months esteem oppose nearer enable too six. She numerous unlocked you perceive speedily.

Affixed offence spirits or ye of offices between. Real on shot it were four an as. Absolute bachelor rendered six nay you juvenile. Vanity entire an chatty to.

George

Erin

right should we screen record too errrr if you go on its like quicktime is it just beeped into my recording we go into file er you er screen recording file in the corner file new screen recording you alright we can have five mins before we do this if you want we don't have to do it cool ok so were in sketchup pay attention to the red line and the blue line and the green line in the corner cos they tell you where you're doing things ok the pencil icon on the left is what you use to draw lines at the bottom theres like the bottom thing at the left i don't know what yours will be on maybe the twisty round thing thats like what you change what you're like looking at but you also want to use the hand to grab yourself and shuffle around kinda like you're crawling erm so you're clicking on it click on the twisty then theres a hand theres also a erm magnifying glass but I'm pretty sure if you're on either of those you can like double finger zoom you know like if you're scrolling so i dunno what thats about term i couldn't tell ya erm so pencil town you wanna click on the pencil it doesn't matter as long as you're in a place that you're happy with err so er if you click and drag the pencil you will see that it draws lines straight lines if you twizzle it around it circles you'll see that it like locks to each axis when its parallel to them so it'll lock to the green axis you can press undo in the bottom left corner or command z or you can use the cursor icon and click on it and press delete right so drawing lines it locks to the axis things nice you can also type in the length that you want it to be which is helpful when you're making mock ups of rooms get a line drawing yeah yup erm so if you click at one point then lets say along our red axis we’ll do our long wall for this room which is the corridor so the room itself is four meters so lets say six meters or what length are you guys working in in the bottom right hand corner what length measurements are you guys working in weehhh you're in feet please don't sorry I’m going to have to get you to make a new document anyway to get it on measurements that work so if you could click on file in the top corner and press new the you want to press simple template then millimetres and then that'll put us in the right units cos otherwise we’ll have to think in feet which would blow my mind ok so lets zoom out and retwizzle again so were in a nice place to design a room which is where it all begins would it be easier if you guys could see my screen erm sorry ill try to big it ok so if we pencil icon and draw a line along the red like this along like parallel to the red line and type in lets do six thousand so that'll equal six meters and press enter and it'll just draw that for you and then press escape so you're not drawing another line well that was apples fault and not mine you ok erin it needs to be along where you want it to would you like to watch me do it again okay right okay then lets click the endpoint of that line thats closest to the green axis and lets drag it along the green axis then type in four thousand so were on the pencil on the pencil along oh along cos I'm doing the wrong thing it’s six thousand again delete that and type in six thousand its cos you need to twizzle thats with the green it does look really small have i messed up is it not six meters do you know the dimensions of the room have i got the dimensions of the room wrong is everyone angry at me for doing this can can i think its ok we might not use the screen recordings cool oh yeah then we’re all good thats what I've been working on so have we got the six meters okay george does elle does sorry I've skipped ahead yeah yeah were just this is gonna be the corridor so we can ignore that at some point thats just perspective so if you just twiddle at the minute we've just got two six meters so that is a square perspective will fuck you up with this app across four meters along the red axis when you get the chance and then just down i don't know how wide the corridor is so I've just been doing guesswork just go down until it looks like right cool i guess we should delete where the door is so oh yeah lets do that when we’ve got the walls in so erin how are

you doing should i come over elles made a room what I'm not sure but what i do is set one side as glass and one side as wall which ill show you to di in a bit what have you done errr i don't like it what did you do what did you do just press undo err where have you gone that is very spooky erin hows things elle you're skipping ahead in my tutorial yeah well so is that six have you made that a square no this ones supposed to be four meters cos we've built in corridor space four thousand yeah and then down there just leave space for a corridor yeah ish cool if you want to delete a line that isn't an undoer one then click the cursor then click the like yeah ok so well make walls now so just go to any corner and wiggle the line till it sticks to the blue axis how big are walls like three meters if you use what one wow no but I'm gonna do it my way are you on like a floorpan weird version cos they've got uses those things yeah it looks like these maybe that is the normal one errr is that one it yeah thats where you wanna be i think its a weirder colour i think but you've made your bed right are you at a point when you can draw walls g i know but it just helps you learn how to draw boxes no so you're trying to delete things draw that line then pencil tool then go to the corner of the wall where the corner of the wall would be drag it up the blue like then type like three meters walls are three meters three thousand yeah so click on the corner and you have to drag the line so its going along the blue do you want a hand so thats along the blue axis now so go along there and three thousand there well then to save you typing in each time if you got from the top corner does everyone want to look at my screen a second well thats not really how tutorials are supposed to work but i guess its the best I'm going to get er so if you drag things along then it automatically lines things up so you get a dotted line which is useful when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re making custom boxes so if you do that then it does that term you will err just put it in automatically i guess but hopefully at some point your computer will give you the option to do that what do you mean youve lost yours el what wheres your woman el your walls are really wonky oh thats cos its not along a flat plane i guess so maybe just redo that wall if you can be arsed setting textures for walls is useful well textures for all surfaces so once george has remade her wall weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do that unless everyones taught themselves it and completely disregarded my it is snapping or it isn't snapping I'm happy for you this is the worst tutorial we've done you're not lucky sometimes you zoom in on the webpage theres zooming on the webpage thats like for safari or chrome and then theres more shortcuts that are for sketchup so you need to make sure that you're using the right one if you want to we may as well keep it honest hows everyone doing are we all at the same stage okay do you want me to quickly wap it together should i show you guys how to do that material then show elle separately oh em draw a line along the corridor extrance then you'll get a floor as well thats what I'm going to teach you in a second I'm not sure if you can set it like the sims to get a cutaway walls so i just use a transparent material on the outside and a normal one on the inside then that works ill show you that in two seconds I'm gonna have so many boys sounds in this recording are you friendly again now that you're good at it well we didn't have to do this i told you we didn't have to do this no but erin upset that we've done it you've caught up right so materials get on your cursor button and use both fingers to click on a wall right in the middle and it comes up with a little menu right well we want a left click a right click sorry i don't know what your shortcut is then we want entity info when you're automatically drawing stuff you get a white side and a blue material front side is a white material and back side is a blue material its kinda random how they do it I've never worked it out so basically you want your inside walls to be a solid material and outside walls to be glass so click on whatever you inside erm

Rabbits Road Press

We met with Etta Voorsanger-Brill, a technician at the press, who told us about how the space is run, the benefits of the project, and the viability of commercial presses. The press supports arts access and education to the community of Newham through public open-access sessions that allow people to learn about Risograph printing. Residents are encouraged to attend with a special discount on print and production costs. The press is one of only two spaces in London with open access to a Riso (at the time of printing) - the other being DIY Space London. The press was originally a commissioned project and so used grant money to establish itself. However, they are now self-sustainable, generating income through use of the press itself, educational workshops, and the lease of their space to third parties, all of which goes back into sustaining the press. Etta shared with us her experience of working with Riso presses in America and raised some interesting points about the differences between the print press scene in the UK compared to places abroad. The US has upward of 200 independent Riso presses, spread across the country from East to West. Covering vast distances, they have formed a network of printers who freely share information and advice between them in order to sustain both a community and a specialist craft.

Conversation

Rabbits Road Press is a community Risograph print studio and publishing press in London founded and run by OOMK. It originated as a project commissioned by Create London, and is based at Old Manor Park Library. The press provides printing and book binding services for artists and community groups in Newham and beyond.

By contrast, in the UK there are comparatively fewer presses â&#x20AC;&#x201C; approximately 40 across the UK. Almost all operate as a commercial business and provide a print service rather than an opportunity to learn about and engage with the process directly. In such a limited market, sharing information about techniques or suppliers could lose a commercial press valuable clients and valuable income. It raises the question of whether running a commercial press is a viable business venture. There are pros and cons on both sides; generating fast income from an increasingly in-demand print service, but denying others the opportunity to access expensive equipment and to learn and create in the same ways.

When considering how Shy Bairns might operate in the future, running our own commercial press appears to be the first answer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we already have the skills, some of the equipment, and need some more ÂŁ (for ourselves, to maintain the equipment we already have, and to buy more). However, our practice also straddles community engagement and collaboration, and much like Rabbits Road, this is naturally incorporated into the way we've produced almost all of our projects to date. Can we sustain ourselves from just one or the other? Will we have the time and space to do both? A middle ground must exist somewhere.

Rabbits Road is unique with their approach to the press; they create equal opportunities for arts education and engagement, to learn and pass on skills and experiences, and create change in a community. Open access is at the core of Rabbits Road, and Etta reminded us of how important it was to find your core and keep it.

www.rabbitsroadpress.com

London Centre for Book Arts London Centre for Book Arts is an artist-run, open-access studio offering education programmes and access to resources for artists and designers. The Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to promote book arts and artist-led publishing in the UK by providing open-access to printing, binding and publishing facilities.Â Ira Yonemura and Simon Goode founded LCBA and run the space together. We met with them to talk about the business, ask for tips, and compare how they function as a fully fledged space with how Shy Bairns could potentially run in the future.

At present, LCBA includes a dedicated workshop space, open-access facilities for book printing, production and finishing, studio holdings, and a shop. We talked with Ira and Simon about the need and demand for access to spaces that provide specialist print and production equipment. Graduates who leave with a practice in book arts (Shy Bairns included) have limited access to such spaces, leaving many of us without the ability to continue using our skills, or making an income from them. London is fortunate to have a range of different open-access facilities that cater for book arts, however there are few spaces in the North that provide the same opportunities. Shy Bairns hope to somehow fill this gap, combining our skills across book design, print, and production to extend education and allow continued access within this area.

Considering our own space, we also discussed the future of artist-led spaces and the recent shift in the structure of studios and workshops. In the past, spaces have sprung up as a result of finding funding, or were conceived and functioned only from one funded project to the next. External funding can dramatically improve the work, and work conditions, for small groups and businesses, but can be extremely volatile and relies heavily on many external factors (economic climate, location, demand) that cannot easily be controlled, particularly when a group is small and emerging. Now, the funded model appears to be in decline and being self- sufficient is becoming the most viable option â&#x20AC;&#x201C; generating sustainable income that self-funds projects, space, and artists fees through the sale of a product or service, access to equipment, memberships, workshops.

Conversation

LCBA told us that they had funded a lot of the equipment they currently have through a Kickstarter campaign, and now make the majority of their income through membership fees to access their space and resources. They have also recently published a book titled Making Books: a guide to creating hand-crafted books by the London Centre for Book Arts, which has contributed to both their income and exposure. Shy Bairns has never received funding in the form of a grant (at the time of publishing), and we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t set up intending to function in that way. Our income so far has come from a variety of different sources, including the sale of zines and books, workshop and artists fees, and donations via our Patreon. Fees for projects mainly contributed to covering up-front material expenses and paying ourselves with the remainder. However, our Patreon currently funds half of our monthly studio rent, with the other half being split four ways equally. This has allowed us to keep the cost of our space low and meant we could keep a space that functions how we need.

As we evolve our practice and introduce different strands to our output, we will diversify our income streams with the aim to remain economically self-sufficient in all of our activities. Generating enough income through commissioned projects (the majority of what we do now) should allow us to return to original book production and introduce new print workshops, which in turn should generate more income (easy).

www.rabbitsroadpress.com

Low Res Camera Roll

is an online exhibition space on Instagram Shy Bairns had access to this account for a week with the intention of collaborating with someone new and posting about this book and Jerwood commission. I broke my phone. @low_res_camera_roll

. Hey guys, so this would have been my last post of the residency if I hadn’t smashed my phone, got my days mixed up, and last minute ended it with one sentence and a photo of us having a cuddle. I could technically still post cos insta won’t let me log out. Does anyone else's app do that? I feel trapped MMMM First of all thanks soooooo much 2 M @big.b4by.g M for having us, and creating this space for art and shitposts alike.

Things I looooved:

aI think at first we wanted to use utilise this online space as our first residency and ask questions, gather information, get ppls opinions. I get a little stressed about posting to @shybairnsgetnowt. Like galleries will probs look at our instagram before our website and if they don’t like it they won’t go on our website and won’t hire us and then we’ll be skint. It’s exciting for artists to have a place to shit post when there’s so much pressure to post only our work.

ahaving an informal chat about our work. I say informal chat but what I really mean is shouting into the void, but saying lmao a lot. It’s good to type tho. It’s good to get feelings about Art out there without worrying that if you say something wrong u won’t get the bursary or u won’t get the interview or u won’t get the grade.

Things I did not vibe with:

athis feels like a space to ~test out new work~ and it always makes sense for that work to be like digital collab with yr audience work. But it kinda feels like the algorithm isn’t gonna let that slide. Most insta residencies don’t seem to get much traction, and the ones that do are more like selfies or like activism + selfie.

aon their website, LRCR says it asks artists to upload the entirety of their camera roll over the 7 day residency. This is a great idea I could never do as surely even artists don’t wanna out themselves as someone who still screenshots their bf from 8 years ago’s facebook status lmao? Thanks so much for putting up with us! If u liked our instagram residency you’ll love the £500 paper copy! This is it. Inabit I

How To: Lino Print

Lesson

Elle taught Izzy the basics of lino printing

I loved this so much! I haven’t been able to properly keep up my personal practice since I became unwell with CFS/ ME - I find it hard looking at screens to design work and risograph printers involve too much heavy lifting for me. This is the first time I’ve ever used lino. I’ve always stuck to digital processes before but I loved this manual approach and it really suited how I’m able to work. I asked for a lino print kit for my birthday after this masterclass! Thanks El you’re great and I’m inspired x

Workshop: Liam Fallon Dear Diary Today I’m feeling really... uhh. Being in London, even just for two days, really takes it out of me mentally. I truly take my hat off to the people who live there because that shit is exhausting. I could have done with staying in bed until I start Actual Work, but today was the last day we could visit Liam Fallon’s studio and fit it into the book. This bloody book is gonna kill me. Can’t wait to collaborate with my bed and Glee boxset when it’s done. Liam Fallon is a sculptor based literally 5 minutes walk from my flat. Liam’s studio is right at the top of an old mill in Ancoats, Manchester. I just kept thinking about the idea of getting our risograph up one flight of stairs. I guess it says something about my privilege when thats the first thing I think about. Every studio in Manchester is now a shiny block of flats, with the only ones left being these little red brick birdhouses overlooking a glass city. It’s easy to romanticise and Liam’s studio is gorgeous but it made me think a lot about how we’ll ever find the right studio for Bairns. Anyway, 5 seconds after we walked in I decided to give up print and become a sculpture boi. Liam is so cool. His work is so cool, beautiful, and it’s full of hearts. We really wanted to talk to him about building. I was really dreading telling him we wanted his help to make a shelf. I feel like a baby. He has a workshop at the side of his studio and I don’t even own a ruler. I’ve stuck some pages in of the sketches he talked up through, penciling your ideas and using CAD. Ez and me are gonna give our shelf ideas a go later. We’ve never done this kinda of thing before but Liam was really helpful. Other than the I-have-never-built-a-shelf shame, we mostly we just chatted. Liam talked a lot about burning out when it comes to social media. Which I really really get. He’s been logging out of apps. I guess he’s in the same position as us; running our own Instagrams, a collective's Instagram (he founded Rhino in 2017 with other MSoA grads), new projects...he’s right that it’s too much. The most helpful thing Liam told me was that his biggest way to develop as an artist is to cook. To think about the food, buy the food, look at the food, work with the food, eat the food. Not thinking about art but about yourself and what you need. (note 2 self; google Anna Del Conte’s ragu bolognese sauce).

Development

Dear Diary Today AutoCAD is driving me round the bend. I'm just going to use SketchUp.

Facilitating Group Discussions A brief summary of a free Open University online course (2 hours) A facilitator is someone who assists the progress of individuals or groups, making processes easier. A facilitator helps individuals and groups to achieve their goals and assist the group’s efforts towards its objectives.

There are different facilitation styles that can be applied depending on the group's maturity level: Facilitation Style

Group's Maturity

Direct Facilitator directs the group

Immature Newly formed or one-off group

Cooperate Facilitator works with the group to decide the direction of the meeting

Semi-mature Group formed for some time but still not performing to full potential

Suggest Facilitator respects autonomy of group and gives them the freedom to find their own way

Mature Group Self-directing and generally working effectively together

Shy Bairns is a semi-mature group

Those who have a directing style will tend to want to tell the group what to do. This style can be closely associated with training, as a trainer will tend to structure the group and its activities – Bairns often uses a direct style for group meetings, but we we shouldn't be telling each other what to do all the time. A direct style is more appropriate for when we are facilitating workshops with members of the public. Cooperation involves a partnership between the group, where decisions on how the group operates are made on an equal basis – Bairns should use a cooperation style when meeting as a collective, working together to have productive group discussions.

Development

The facilitator encourages everyone to participate, suggests alternative methods of working, and coordinates pre- and post-meeting logistics. In Shy Bairns there is no one facilitator, so we must all learn to help each other. We should each think of ourselves as responsible for the role of facilitating our group discussions.

Quiz In order to increase your competency in facilitation, you may find it useful to assess your confidence in key facilitation skills. Below is a list of statements: read each statement and, thinking about your typical behaviour in a group, make a note of the number which best agrees with your assessment of your skills, where: 1 = disagree strongly 2 = disagree slightly 3 = neither agree nor disagree 4 = agree slightly 5 = agree strongly 1 I find it easy to get on with most people 2 When I meet new people I have no problem in developing relationships 3 Even when I have strong opinions, I am able to hold my tongue 4 I do not show my feelings even when I hear something I dislike 5 I find it easy to let people have their say 6 I am a listener rather than a talker 7 I make good use of questions to establish facts 8 I am not afraid to probe for underlying feelings and concerns when I feel it is appropriate 9 I find it easy to observe detail. 10 I can interpret body language effectively 11 I can quickly summarise the content of a conversation 12 I find it easy to get to the heart of an issue 13 I am not afraid of conflict 14 I have confidence to deal with difficult situations

Scoring Now look at your scores. Add the following two questions together and note your scores. Questions 1 and 2, which relate to empathy Questions 3 and 4, which relate to neutrality Questions 5 and 6, which relate to listening Questions 7 and 8, which relate to questioning Questions 9 and 10, which relate to observation Questions 11 and 12, which relate to summarising Questions 13 and 14, which relate to intervention The average score for this questionnaire is 7 for each section. A score lower than this indicates that you need to increase your competence in this area. Above this score and you should already have the skills to help you be an effective facilitator â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but practice always makes perfect!

Self Crits Sometimes when you're busy and working hard it's easy to let yourself slip and stop thinking critically about what you're doing. Though we've talked to a number of outside people about our practice, we also thought it was important to individually reflect on our team and our work.

workin together as positive:

workin together as negative:

our practice enables us to build a great friendship and hang out ALL of the time.

can cause stress on our friendship constantly just talking about work, everything can turn into a bairns meeting whether it be hanging out in the flat, by the canals etc. - this isn’t healthy!

we can do shows together and plan meetings in each other’s houses and share a studio, which is really fun and adds to our friendship.

Don’t take enough organised breaks or time away together as a result of this. we really need to learn to work on us

we can work with our best friends and use travelling as an excuse for mini bairns breaks

any misunderstandings linked to work can then transfer to home life, as we live together.

get to celebrate really great achievements together easy to pick work background music cause we all just want to listen to 1975, 24/7

sometimes hard to decide who will be taking on which side of the task, e.g design work, selecting sizes for printing etc. It’s really tricky to go forward on a project when you know one person isn’t 100%, especially when it’s your friend and their idea is good but maybe not feasible or right at the time - it’s something we have to do to move forward in any situation

great time to transfer skills that each of us have and use these effectively to produce an outcome in a project we love each other

Development

Elle

Izzy I’m really proud of Bairns. We work hard and make things that people seem to enjoy. I’m particularly pleased with our current projects — Jerwood and Fanspeak* — because they feel like we’re trying new things and following our interests. Buuuut this is a crit not a compliment sesh and I only really started on good points to make us all feel better. Generally my main critique of the way we work is that we don’t experiment or push ourselves outside of what we already do. We’re all clever and make interesting things and think about things a lot but I worry that we don’t really put that into bairns as much as we should do? Maybe I mean that we don’t think critically about our work, we kinda just feel and go. Which is ok I guess ?? But it’s not really how I work in my own practice and I feel like we’d benefit from sitting and chatting about what we’re trying to do a bit. As ~bookmakers~ it’d be nice to experiment with the form of the book more than we do atm. Idk what that would look like in practice cos we don’t get a huge amount of time in the studio together which is just unavoidable and I don’t want to ignore that and pretend its something we can work towards short term. Maybe it looks like solo experimentation and investigation into different forms and taking more time in the development stages of our books? Maybe for one book we can focus on form over content? Maybe it’s longer research + planning phases? I know this isn’t cool and it’s mean but I want more authorship and direction in our work with the public. I know thats not the idea! I want my cake and I want to eat it too. I hate collage. I’m sick of collage. Let’s really plan our workshops and think about what we want the outcome to achieve and what we want it’s life apres-workshop to be. Are we teaching and the physical outcome doesn’t matter? Are we focused on making a nice collaborative thing that people will like to look at later? I think generally this kinda purpose finding is important to the future of our practice. I want a plan! I want a call to arms! I want a manifesto! What are we about what are we doing who are we doing it with and why. I mean it might just be that we realise that we don’t care and we’re here for a good time not a long time and we just want to play with books and get paid for it. It might be that we figure out we want to be more purposeful? Idk what this would look like cos I feel like we don’t actually want to be that. Our foray into institutional critique with New Contemps made us anxious. Personally I just wanna have fun I want to make nice books about cool things and work with people. I’d like to make books that aren’t directly reacting to something we’ve been paid to react to you know? This is the first book we’ve made in yeeeaaaars where it isn’t responding to something we’ve been told to respond to. I think this exhib we’re actually thinking about display which is good and I guess we can see if it’s something we’re interested in pursuing or if we want to focus on books. I think generally we’ve established a sort of method and outcome that works, and now we need to think about how we invest our time into each bit, what we’re interested in, and how to extend that forwards. Atm imo we’re too comfortable.

George Good Things / things that are working / things I enjoy:

Bad Things / things that aren't working / things I don't enjoy

The new timetable app is great. Okay that doesn't count

Always responding to something Workshops are sometimes a bit repetitive? Which can make them boring for us

What I mean is we're collaborating well, we have a good system -- a lot of this is down to google docs Really good at making people feel welcome and creating a space that’s fun and people can let themselves go in collage etc We mostly stay in contact with people after projects and I think that means we’re have a nice work ethic hopefully Everything we make always looks stun — sometimes too stun

There was a point where our zines all looked the same but I think we're over that In exhibitions we're the kids table or we're not Artists but a workshop that comes after Are we getting so stressed with quality that we're limiting our zines to smaller audiences and smaller impacts? Should we just bash out free six page zines? I worry we’re there to box tick sometimes Worried we have a really woke image and even tho we are obviously woke I don’t think that’s what the work is about here — new contemps kinda turned it into that It’s really hard to make artistic choices when we all have such different styles and care about different things

Questions: Will we ever make something that isn't about the art world or us? Are we trapped in art cycles? Are people making art about the art world boring? Do we have things in common that would be interesting?

Erin Good: Four members means ¼ of the work load each (in theory)

We’ve never critiqued ourselves or actively sought out criticism! It’s the only way we’re going to continually push our practice forward.

Each Bairn comes from a different background and skillset – we have a broad range of skills between us that allow us to tackle a variety of projects. We bring four different perspectives to the work which makes for more varied end results.

Since graduating we’ve been working across both the art and business worlds, but we don’t have all the skills we need to function at our best in this way. We could take courses to help boost our skills in invoicing, finances, etc to help spread that work load.

We have a good ability to adapt – to the demands of commissioners, to the expectation of an audience, to different scales of projects.

Izzy has given us an access document that details their exact needs but we need to fully integrate accessibility into how we function and work as a group – these access requirements are often forgotten but this needs to come first, always!

We’re well connected as a group – in part because of our other jobs outside of Shy Bairns, but also because we’re good at actively engaging in the scene around us. We’ve started doing regular weekly meetings, a tasklist, budget, email rotas. There has been an improvement on how we spread labour equally throughout the group – could improve with a best practice document?

Bad: We need more irl team meetings! We need a proper system for when someone unexpectedly can't do the work – this could be solved with more thorough planning at the start of projects.

We don’t often have a solid plan when we run our workshops – we rely too heavily on muscle memory and this often leads to confusion both within the group and for participants. We need to improve our facilitation skills especially when people are paying us to run them. Budgets for each project should have set guidelines and predications before we start work, and if not all group members will be keeping track of finances we should assign a budget manager per project and slightly reduce additional workload for them. We should build in time within projects to reflect and feed back with each other to help us identify weak spots in our practice and group dynamics.

What Is Our 5 Year Plan? Y1

Our Space

Bigger

Accessible

Established

Room to create projects as well as admin

Riso facilities Gallery space

We will

Establish further relationships with galleries

Work and be paid parttime for Shy Bairns Be updating our equipment: electric guillotine, second riso/ more colour drums, collator, desktop computers in the studio

Have a monthly output Have an email newsletter Be part-funded by Patreon Be breaking even on project budgets

Have funding per project (including good pay for us)

George have a dog

George working as a print technician

Erin have a freelance design practice

Erin moved house

Elle take care of herself

Elle moved to Athens

Izzy be moving at a comfortable pace

Izzy have a garden 42

Our Space Bigger Fully established Print and workshop facilities that work with the gallery

We will Development

Work and be paid fulltime for Shy Bairns

service for other book artists

Be developing our own projects as well as commissioned work

Offer print residencies for book artists Have funding for a 1-2 year programme of activities within the workshop and gallery

Be creating solo shows and have a yearly programme of artists in the gallery Offer an open-access print service that allows the public to print zines and publications Offer a design and print service material for additional income if needed Offer a publishing 43

George have medication sorted Erin have an established design practice Elle have a stable job that's interesting Izzy have a curatorial practise

Sims Studio what's ur ideal studio?

Elle's Key Features: Oven risograph machines Big gallery space Strange clown painting

Development Izzy's Key Features: Tiny ModCon printer Tiny meeting space Generally tiny

Erin's Key Features: Individual studio spaces Massive gallery space Garden with pond Huuuuuge

George's Key Features: Risograph made out of oven, table and barbeque Huge duck sculpture Pride flag

A Tutorial With: Kevin Hunt Izzy and George met Kevin at the canteen in the art school and he

gave them some cherries that were grown in Fife and he wanted to buy soup but he had forgotten his card and then he got his card but he didn’t buy soup. They went to the print room because the canteen didn’t have any plugs and George’s laptop was on 17%. They sat down and talked about how Kevin has worked here for ages and he didn’t know there were showers down the corridor and then they started talking about this project. They told him that the had been nominated by Zoe (Kevin knew Zoe) and that they had to do an application form with a long Equal Opportunities thing and he had done a similar one for a-n. While they talked about that Izzy started worrying about Equal Opportunities forms and if fascists

come into power the amount of paperwork they have on the people they will want to kill.

Izzy didn’t voice this concern and moved onto reading the proposal aloud for Kevin to hear. After hearing the proposal Kevin wanted to clarify the timeline for the development activities and asked if they were happening live in the gallery. They said no it was happening before and being displayed in a book alongside ephemera for the exhibition. They explained they wanted

to make the development the work and asked if that made sense and Kevin said yeah yeah yeah thats kinda interesting cos its like kinda like just like the opposite or like the flip of what normally happens in that kinda work of like something has like an engagement is often Yeah I think you never see artists You know yeah yeah yeah yeah Like sloppily teaching each other how to do stuff and its a really nice part of it Yeah we didn’t want it to be too polished or to present it we really wanted to focus on us rather than being like artists who are teaching like the uneducated masses we wanted to point out that we are like unskilled in lots of ways and we’ve got lots of developing to do and want to focus on artists often being naff at what they do. They talked about this for a while and explained the skill sharing sessions they had been working on one of which was Sketch Up taught by Izzy to the rest of the group in order to mock up exhibition designs. They then moved seats to show Kevin a mock up of the space on their laptop. Everyone looked at the model and Kevin asked about how their set up was at previous exhibitions then they mused about the infamous New Contemporaries corridor placement for a while.

Kevin seemed to enjoy the gossip. This conversation transcended

into talk about artists fees and artist livelihood and artists existence on a dying earth and being bored of making work surrounding critique of institutions. George said It’s mentally exhausting to be in a space and want to say What Is Happening Here Is Shit but also know you need a job and you need people to like you. George felt stupid and angry and sad and embarrassed with this statement. But mostly just tired. This is a nicer project, they all thought.

Even though this was a nicer and well paid project, the topic went back to artist fees and making money from the art world and commodifying. Kevin dropped bombshell after bombshell. Make sure you have an artist proof for each of you and also say who’s is who’s and if you give one to

your mam make sure everyone knows it was your mam’s copy

because when they end up in Tate Liverpool in a little glass box it will say so and so’s mam’s copy and anyway yeah then put them in libraries but maybe have four or five for sale just because you’re giving a set away doesn’t mean they’re not valuable like the books existing in libraries is the work so you’re not just giving them away you can still sell a couple of copies even if it’s in twelve years time also are you gonna sell the film because you should sell every single thing. He starts pulling out some artists he thinks Shy Bairns would like or that will make them understand they don’t have to

give everything away for free to be cool. He has another look over our sketch-up plan for the Jerwood space. Kevin says the work looks Deller-esque. Izzy rolls their eyes. He’s problematic now. They all look at the marble in his new work and remark how beautiful it is. But he’s forgotten people in wheelchairs exist. Problematic Fave. George grimaces and says I know I know I can’t help it I kinda love him I wanted a tutorial with him. Kevin and George’s eyes meet. George panics that Kevin thinks they wanted a tutorial with Jeremy Deller and settled for Kevin Hunt as a substitute. Kevin knows in his heart that is not true. He recommends

some artists that aren’t Jeremy Deller. Sean Edwards book on floor. Low

Profile performing intimate moments with humorous gestures. Christian Marclay film that’s like clocks that are in other films films

he didn’t make. Bethan Huws sculptural text making things in editions deciding on how many editions before the editions are made. Kevin and Izzy and George all talk about cataloging and the importance of knowing where all the copies that were made are, even if no one cares about them really until you’re famous or dead or both. Having something you’ve

made looked after for life is still a really wonderful thing. Kevin says.

Kevin has to leave. He’s off to a residency in the Netherlands for a couple of months. Izzy and George’s eyes meet as he shuts the door. They both silently think of how they wish they could announce they had to leave places because they had very important artist residencies to pack for. Maybe soon. But alas, not today. Today

they are off to soak up all this information, type it up and eat a jacket potato. That is still a really wonderful thing.

This is a slightly fictionalised transcription of a tutorial given by Kevin Hunt to George Gibson and Izzy Kroese. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a ~slightly~ fictitious manner. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

oh god ZINES, the art world's n1 commodity zine me up daddy Zines remind me of scrapbooking and piczo websites and political leaflets and publications my parents left lying around the house. I remember making one for an art foundation show - photocopying a collaged set of pages and then realising I could only afford to make 5, which was ok because that's what looked good enough stacked on a wobbly MDF plinth. When I got to London i felt out of place amidst the zine fair crowd, a reluctance to get involved with the purposefully DIY vibe because of it feeling a bit like cosplaying the 80s, or riot grrl battle re-enactment. The aesthetic felt performative to me, the child of twoTrotskyist newspaper sellers who'd grown up around handmade leaflets with increasingly poor graphic design in Essex, the land of cheap glamour. I understood the form as a cheap-ish-butnot-really way to make a book that no-one would publish, either due to incendiary political content or just being a bit fucking weird/boring/niche. I shuffled along to a couple of zine fairs and pretended to be interested, with the hope of making new queer friends. I didn't make any new queer friends, but I found a few small zines run by weirdos that were super cute and I found a lot of other zines with slick photoshoots, heavy branding and careerism hiding behind a pseudo-radical vocabulary and aesthetic. These were zines positing themselves as woman's (womxn's) mags for the new age. 'when's the last time you saw someone who looked like you in a magazine?' shouted thin cis white girls with pink hair, proudly showing off their new glossy inclusive photoshoot. ('when's the last time you read a magazine?', says noa). What makes zines powerful is how they can articulate a queer thing like queerness, how they can confirm your youness in a world

Words by Maz Murray and Noa Carvajal that refuses it. Low circulation makes sense in this context, not as a fetish of the limited object but as something where there is as much as is needed and can be made to the makerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability. The zines which pioneered the methods and aesthetic of zines today were part of a 'community', a specific fandom or interest or activist group, a way to document and organise and express. They were made in the way things were made in their time, which gave rise to a certain aesthetic (this underground stuff is still going on in some parts of course, but a lot of these things migrated to the internet before we were old enough to be aware of them). But now some are all glossy. But still *DIY*. Zine-glossy.

__ a reluctance to get

involved with the purposefully DIY vibe because of it feeling a bit like cosplaying the 80s, or riot grrl battle re-enactment Is the aim of these glossy zines to make your own space where you get to be a celebrity in a magazine and be important? I get that. I wanna feel hot enough to be printed out too, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s refreshing to see people outside of white cisnormative patriarchal standards of beauty given the A-list treatment, and it's nice to have something that looks nice! but the slickness of the method seems a strange cognitive dissonance - more about showing that u can do aesthetic well and parlaying an antithetical zine 'expertise' into roles in industry (in real magazines, in fashion, in contemporary art) than in carving out the spaces that we need. Many (like me) will interact with these more upscale zines

through social media, rather than buying the £6-10 product, so we see a glamorous presentation of process and success and a professionalising of DIY which becomes code for self-made, start-up, #girlboss. We see founders doing workshops for Facebook and imagine they’ve reached some kind of secure status, when really these people are probably still struggling in the endless hellscape of freelancing. Meanwhile the institutions happily profit, leaving us reeling and confused. And here is the little trick that no one wants to pick at. The institution-made zine upsells subculture the same way iD, Dazed et al do, but makes it look nicer.

Is the aim of these glossy zines to make your own space where you get to be a celebrity in a magazine and be important? It makes sense that institutions are commissioning /platforming zines now. It feeds a flock of birds with one scone (we got told not to use speciesist language) a vague sense of radicality which is often aesthetic and ahistorical, a patrician voiceof-the-people schtick if ppl are quoted in it, a floaty sense of collaboration, all of which go towards the institutions getting some woke points and deflecting criticism from their continued lack of change. It’s cheap too, for a funding body. The artist-producer (who is probably yt) has been taught not to expect much. Contributors can get paid next to nothing. U can hold workshops for local ppl and pay them an actual nothing (hey, but ur getting published!). A limited print run creates a desirable commodity which can sell for nice, and nets the institutions some sweet relevance too. this whole system, seemingly new but drawn along the old lines of exploitation as always, rests on the big secret that nothing about the zine is inherently radical. Zines are another form of showing information, and some of us like it and some of us don't and some don't care. If everyone admits that then everything is fine, except that zine makers are called in to make a 'radical'

product and then it becomes about complicity. The complicity of claiming radical potential which isn’t there, and in doing so taking away space from projects with an actual radical aim. It's a bit weird when making a zine is the aim of a collaborative project supposedly working with people, because it's a prescriptive, limiting aim. Marketability is not the same as inclusivity - everything doesn’t have to be for everyone, and it can’t be. but for the institution it has to be, so funding is given to generic projects with the correct socially engaged aesthetic. Claiming to speak to/for an entire ‘community’ ends up straightening out specificity til once again it’s the most privileged acting as spokesperson, who is generally the curator of the zine. And when given the choice to fund a project which has a specific aim or a zine with an aesthetic rendering of activism, institutions will go for the lesser threat. what would be more radical would be to refuse this language, but this would threaten your spot at the table and someone else would just pop up to do it, and we're not here to judge (except for the implicit judgement in this leading statement). We think Shy Bairns asked us to write this cuz they feel this vibe. They just wanna make good-looking stuff with risographs, but are feeling the pressure to project a radical accessible approach which even they see as insincere in order to give the institutions what they want/need for their arts council application/tax exemption etc etc. and SB like working with institutions cuz u can get paid and cover your costs and cuz it’s like look mum no hands !! And hey we like it too, noa has a thing she made in a book and she proudly shows it off to visitors. Maz makes films that are sometimes shown in places other than secret underground bunkers. & we both wanted £75 quid to write something for this zine cus we been writing for free on the internet anyhow. It beats picking up an extra shift. If u like working with institutions cuz it allows you more budget and time to do ur work, and u wanna have a career and be recognised then literally that’s fine - but let's not offer validity on a plate to institutions who don't care about us at the cost of selling each other out. let's do something else and get weird. idk maybe let's make a zine?

How to Invoice (the Shy Bairns way) in which Erin tells the rest of the group five key points about making an invoice

1 An invoice number is important because it allows both you and the person who is paying you to track which invoice is which. I don't have a proper system, so usually make it up. I once sent a Bairns invoice to a big gallery with the invoice number 58008 so it spelt the word boobs upside down. 2 The description should include details of the work you have done for the client so they know what they are paying you for. 3 Always include your full payment details to avoid delay in being paid. This should include the name your bank is registered in, the details of your bank and account, and your billing address. 4 A UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference) is a 10 digit number given to you by HMRC when you register to do your taxes. If you have one, including a UTR on your invoice will tell a client that you are responsible for declaring your own taxes and that they do not need to tax your pay (which saves you the effort of claiming it back later). 5 Include a threatening statement at the bottom. This will help protect you from being fobbed off and give you leverage when people don't pay you on time. Financial threats seem to work best with smaller organisations who have less money, and could also make you more money. 52

Lesson

An invoice is a bill that you send when someone owes you payment for goods or services. Here is an example of the invoice we send our clients or commissioners.

SHY BAIRNS shybairns.co.uk

info@shybairns.co.uk

Client address Invoice no: 00000

Date: 00/00/00

Item description

Quantity: XX

Total: £00.00

Payment Details Your name

Billing address

Bank name Sort code Account number

Unique Taxpayer Reference Number (optional)

Payments must be ma de within 30 days of receipt of the invoice. are subject to a fine Late payments of £50 per day and an additional £25 for eac provided thereafter. h new invoice If you find any mistake s in the above, please contact us.

The day we sent this book to print, we had the following talk about the project and how we think it went.

Erin Apology language was silly on the surface but I’ve been thinking about it a lot all the way through the project, I’m trying to understand you guys more George Yeah I think it’s made me think about communication in general a lot more. We should expand on it and have a document on how we like being spoken to and what we don’t like I think people are scared to be too formal about their friendships but it’s really good

Elle was in a different timezone and very poorly so had to give this a miss. Contrary to popular belief, she has not quit Shy Bairns to chase a solo career. George Hey im out of work do we wanna do the big finale chat now?

Izzy Long term collabs are like marriages they need proper Work

Izzy Yeah ok!

Erin And we did all the skillshare lessons we wanted to do.

Erin Yeah ok! Izzy Ew

Izzy I think I really benefited from all of our skill shares in both learning stuff and just having a nice time together

George Woah twinzies Classic queers Same hair cut same crack

George Sketch up I hate but will use now, typesetting I hate but will use now

Erin Should we sum up the activities we did? And what we've learnt?

Erin Buzzed to have learnt sketch up tbh Literally adds a new dimension to how I can plan and organise things

Izzy Challenges etc

George It’s gonna be really useful for our next few projects I think! Which is what we wanted from this

George and about whether this project worked? What does 'worked' mean? Erin We tried to tackle a range of ideas and activities I think we managed to cover a lot?

Izzy You guys also had a fun little trip too Meeting people and stuff? George YES we had the best trip

George The apology language is a big one for me! I feel like the personal bits meant a lot more to me than the more obvious stuff Izzy Apology language was great I never thought something that stupid would be good

Erin Our London trip was really fun We got the chance to take some time out of Manchester We got to look around some galleries and just ~be with art~ for a while which was really nice

George LCBA and RR were both wonderful I feel like we made some friends And also like was just nice to spend some time with you Erin cos we never really get to do that

George That line from Noa and Maz 'Being a celeb in your own magazine' line gave me anxiety But I think it’s okay to do that now and again Erin I LOVED that line I feel éxposed but I also love it cos I do wanna be a bit famous

Erin Deffo good connections and people we could hang out with again maybe?

Izzy This is a self centred work

Izzy I think that meeting new people was important to developing our practice in a new way

George I don’t wanna bring identity into this too much but we r all marginalised ppl having a good time with a lovely institution's money and if you don’t like that you’re ableist, homophobic AND transphobic Let us LIVE without having to do critique for once

George That was like our main aim, to hang out with people and soak up all the info, but not feel guilty that they’re having to teach us for free. I think what I’m still wondering is whether other people will like this, like obvs we liked it and had loads of fun doing it cos we got to hang out with cool ppl

Erin If we hadn’t done this kind of work now I think our practice and our group would have fallen apart in the pretty near future

Izzy I mean I think it’ll look class George But I’m immediately conscious of it being alongside Art

George Yeah I mean just as we started it we were very on the rocks in terms of understanding each other’s needs

Izzy Like is this Good Art or is it Using Money To Have A Good Time I think Noa and Maz’s piece kinda helped me out with that vibe tho?

Erin That’s not saying everyone has to make a public project about development but this should be acknowledged by more people and talked about and shared

George If you can use an institutions money to have a good time I think just fuckin run with it Yeah! That piece is really great

Izzy I’m glad we had this chance to invest in what we’re about and do something that is actually ours? Previously for money we’ve had to respond to an exhibition or do a workshop about a subject or w/e

Erin Tbh this project made me feel excited to be making work that meant something to me and I really benefited from, I’ve been surprised by how excited I was to do it all Izzy But we’re (generally) unpaid artists, outside of uni it’s so hard to develop work cos you don’t have that time or support. I think it’s ok we used this time to do that And we had to make an art out of it in order to do it. So here it is. The art

Erin It’s generally Good and Healthy to explore these things Whether through your work or on your own time if that’s possible

George I had a tutorial once with and \redacted\ said every collective should split up after 3 years because it always runs its course

Izzy Yeah my tutor at uni said I’d dump yous after I graduate

like we wanted to or paint balling or on a two day trip all together Which was a Challenge

Erin Someone at my work said that to me too!

George Some ideas were just daft anyway Group therapy I would have had a breakdown and it would be in this book that will exist forever

George But maybe if ppl spent some time doing weird Corporate team building they wouldn’t I don’t wanna end up in the Artist-Led Graveyard just yet

Izzy Yeah that was not a good idea from us I just wanna add that jerwood have been so great to work with as a disabled artist This has been our first big project since I got a chronic illness and it’s really changed how we work

Izzy It just highlights to me how much artist wellbeing isn’t supported or normalised George That’s a really good point, all other industries have HR and team building paintball or w/e Like — u will be too exhausted to carry on soon because that’s how it works anyway enjoy your part time teaching job say hi to the kids 4 me We need more moral boosters in art

George Yeah! They were the perfect gallery to do this with Erin Yeah they’ve never questioned the level of support we expected from them Like we honestly didn’t have to think about whether they would pay for something or help with something which much be such a weight off your mind Iz It felt p seamless?

Erin Now that I’m working in a more corporate atmosphere in my day job (although not near perfect) it’s made me think about how to translate a lot of that formal office culture and how to treat each other with respect into this practice

Izzy And that experience of working with a team so great has really made me like optimistic and hopeful about art world in general

George Local art scenes should team up and go paint balling

George I would love to have some fancy critique of ~the institution~ We love a whinge We love a hot take But I really don’t have any with jerwood

Izzy Paintballing actually brings me to the difficulties of doing this project while disabled / yous working busy hours Erin Yeah important to acknowledge that in all this

Izzy Oh! One other thing idk if we’ve touched on I liked being able to pay people who do stuff we like

George Yes I think there’s a lot of stuff we originally thought “lol yeah let’s do that” that turned out to inaccessible or inappropriate Izzy I really struggled at first to think of team building exercises to work around those terms? Like we couldn’t go on A Long Walk

Erin That was one of the best parts!

Izzy Getting to pay not just LCBA to pay attention to us but local artists or new critics It felt like a good way to share our luck in working with a budget

George Yeah Maz and Noa have been writing for free and just chucking it on insta they deserve that ££££

George I feel like we know what we’re doing And as Pals Tbh when we wrote the proposal I kinda thought it was bullshit

Erin It's good that our development during this didn't come at the detriment to others who would otherwise might help us for free. It didn’t feel like we were standing on anyone to get the top

Erin I think we’ll know more about the success of it once we move on to the next project and see how we function post-development? George We’ll stick a page in and let you’s know Fourth wall break

Izzy Hahahaha are we at the top then Erin No we’re not at the top at all! But trying to develop and improve often feels like you’re climbing a weird fleshy ladder built out of your peers and you have to climb on them to get anywhere I think Noa and Maz’s writing is one of my favourite things in the book

Izzy Scribble on the back ‘3 months later they were all dead after a fight to the death’ George Hahahahaha Erin Written in blood or red riso ink who knows

George What would be change if we had more time? I’d love to have more activities in the book really

Izzy Omg dark and on brand George Are we done now? I want to get a jacket Potato before I have to go back to work

Izzy It’s hard to say cos I feel like all our compromises were kinda out of our hands? Due to illness or work schedules

Izzy Thanks for having us guys

George In a perfect world we’d all be freelance and the absolute picture of health physically and mentally

George Thanks for having us gays x Erin Thanks Jerwood Thanks mum

Izzy But yeah I loved the practical skillshares and I’d love to have done more I actually would want more crit kinda stuff

George Big thank u Harriet and Lauren

George I’d want more writing from other people really And I would have liked an actual irl group crit with other artists in Manchester

Erin Thanks everyone who was involved Izzy Elle says thanks x

Erin So guys Do we think this was a success? Izzy I feel stronger as a collective generally

Created for Collaborate! Supported by Jerwood Arts Created and designed by Shy Bairns

With thanks to: Harriet Cooper Lauren Houlton Zoe Watson Meghan Graydon Darby Etta Voorsanger-Brill Ira Yonemura Simon Goode Liam Fallon Kevin Hunt Maz Murray Noa Carvajal

@shybairnsgetnowt www.shybairns.co.uk info@shybairns.co.uk