Text: 18th November, 2102 – 24 (2×12) days to 12/12/12
Time the 12 Collective met up again to make sure all is on track… it’s all very well staging a Performance where no-one has the full picture until the night but it leaves it all somewhat in the lap of the art-gods…
6th November, 2102 – 36 (3×12) days to 12/12/12
11… or maybe even 12… there is some ambiguity… a little uncertainty… although the work is now based upon none of the collective actually knowing what the others are doing… so technically we could still be at 10 … or 15… even 12….
25th October, 2102 – 48 (4×12) days to 12/12/12
With tasks more clearly defined the twelve Collective are now 8…
13th October, 2102 – 60 (5×12) days to 12/12/12
The Twelve Collective found the pub and beer in particular conducive to artistic creativity. Twelve tasks were identified and a performative mode of delivery decided upon. All we need now are 12 collaborators… yeah, we seem to be back to that one.
1st October, 2102 – 72 (6×12) days to 12/12/12
The Twelve Collective will meet in a few days time in a pub somewhere in Sheffield. They will decide to remain anonymous, at least until 12/12/12 when all be revealed. They will decide to cease the endless search to grow the Collective and instead will loosen the brief and look for collaborators, agitators, anyone willing, and their task will be to inspire, cajole, coerce, or even blackmail 12 others to perform, act, collect or participate in some way in one of the Twelve Tasks that will be the contribution of the Twelve Collective.
19th September, 2102 – 84 (7×12) days to 12/12/12
The problem besetting the project appears to be one of timing. Has 12/12/12 been on a weekend then many others would have been available and wiling to participate. Work and the quotidien seems to be getting in the way of art. We muse upon what this says about the Twelve Collective.
7th September, 2102 – 96 (8×12) days to 12/12/12
September brings those darkening nights, the end of Summer, a feeling that something should be done beyond collecting leaves and playing conkers. The Twelve Collective appear to be four and maybe they need to meet up for the first time and drink to a collaboration..
26th August, 2102 – 108 (9×12) days to 12/12/12
August is the cruellest month, Breeding apathy out of the wet land.
Nothing to report.
14th August, 2102 – 120 (10×12) days to 12/12/12
No advance on three. It is the holiday Season, difficult to pin people down. I have heard it whispered that 3 may now be 5 but have no confirmation of the fact… something about a landscape architect or was I imagining that? Should the 12 Collective be anonymous? Should this blog be written in the first person? Will anyone read it (that’s one of those lovely questions that cannot be answered negatively)?
2nd August, 2102 – 132 (11×12) days to 12/12/12
Two invitees have now agreed to participate so the 12 Collective is now 3. There has been no correspondence about the brief, no variations on the theme, no dialogue and only a tentative claim on postcode areas. S10 appears to be taken and S1 will be in the courtyard at Bank Street Arts. each invitee is asked to invite further in the hope that 3 will become 12 before the month is out.
21st July, 2102 – 144 (12×12) days to 12/12/12
It started with a brief. A brief brief.
12 PROPOSITIONS – 12 x 12 x 12
An area 12×12 is delineated. Using this footprint, a structure is built or imagined to create a space 12x12x12. This is repeated 12 times for each of the 12 separate Sheffield postcodes, from S1 to S12. The precise location of each ‘structure’ is determined using an OS map and co-ordinates. Each should be in a public space, within the boundaries of the relevant postcode and designated an ‘art space’ or ‘performance space’. On 12/12/12 a performance or event will take place in each space lasting 12 seconds, minutes or days. In the 144 days leading up to 12/12/12, variations of this initial idea will be drafted creating up to 123 variations. Any, none or all variations may eventually be realized. The work is located in the potential outcomes or as varied by any of those collaborating. This is the first Proposition and an invitation.
(Set in Times 12 point over 12 lines each containing 12 words)
The initial idea was to create a chain of 144 e-mails over 144 days leading up to 12/12/12 each giving a variation which could happen in any of the 12 locations. It soon becomes clear that this is untenable. Not everyone reads and responds to e-mails every day: worse still, there is no ‘Twelve Collective’ at this point, just the idea of a collective. But hey, this is conceptual art, just the idea of a Collective will suffice. So maybe it will yet be faked – but not just yet… still 144 days to go…
