Collective Works

One thing being at APE made me think about was artist collectives. I've always had these fantasties of motivated cooperative living with ART as LIFE printed in big letters somewhere at the backs of peoples' eyes or maybe even out somewhere in the open. But, you know, a lot of people don't want that. A lot of people wanna go home after a long day out in the world and cozy down with loved ones, or a book, or god-forbiden the television/internet. While I might still be pulling for the first one, I'll allow that some people wanna live in their own places and make all their own rules.

That said--and it was a mouthful--I'd like to see about a working artist (or whatever) co-op that was just like an office. You go in and do some work. You leave and return to your 'life'. I mean, I know this exists right? I'm sure every poetry journal and litzine and bicycle collective or whatever does this. People make time to get done with needs to get done. But I think I want to emphasize the way in which you construct this work project life. The office or gather place, a physical location, seems crucial. It gives the thing a physical reality. And I think too there is something to be had from creating that kind of work space, but for something really exciting and positive. Like I'd imagine newsrooms were in some fictional past without corruption and full of hope.

So yeah. Let's get a project and some cash and rent some office space. Do this shit up right.