matt's big m60 walk - islands

I hope this will be the last of these for a while.

I've begun to clarify the art aspect of the walk in my head a little, and to tie it in with other things I'd like to do this year. There will be an overarching project called Islands [which now has a blog], the first manifestation of which I expect to be a series of sound pieces called Islands : Wind.

This has actually been several weeks in the planning, but there's been very little time to get on with any recording. A combination of family matters, and having to apply for work after my temporary contract came to an end has meant it's hard to find time to do the things I'd really like to. Nonetheless I hope to get the damn thing done pretty soon.

The walk will generate a set of linked works under the umbrella title Islands : Manchester across different media. This much can be found at the new page, Islands, at the walk's blog. More detail will be added as and when it becomes available, so keep checking back there.

The My Route page has just been updated - around half the circuit has now been planned, though one section needs revisiting to make sure the route's accurate and tighten up the timings.

Additionally the longest, and arguably most personal journal entry has been added - 15 February 2015.

Do keep checking back at the blog for the walk. The main activity is the journal - the dated blogposts found under Archives - but the My Route and Islands pages should be updated relatively regularly (My Route more so). You can also find links to the interactive maps at plotaroute.comthe twitter feed, and the JustGiving page. The latter two provide micro-updates on my progress - twitter mainly while I'm out planning the route, but also when I update the blog.

Getting back to Islands - it's not yet clear to me what (if anything) the common ground between each set of works will be. There seems to be an idea of constraints at work - a limited soundmaker and aural palette with Islands : Wind; glass jars, perhaps paint, and of course the linking theme of the walk and the motorway with Islands : Manchester.

I haven't yet quite decided whether my upcoming performance at Peter Barlow's Cigarette (yes, it's a Facebook link; yes, my account is still dormant; hell no, I'm never going back*) will be part of the Islands project.

Hey, maybe I might get back to normal service next time. Here's hoping.

*I'm a lot happier since I left. I'm less aware of events, which is kind of a drawback, but I'm no longer getting annoyed by friends and people I like.

Seriously, I hate the way people post there: unnecessarily aggressive, condescending and/or contrarian for the sake of it; verbose and lacking any substantial content; all caps OMG-gasms!; gullible reposting of wootastic horseshit that's been discredited over and over; and all of it attracting 'likes' like flies on shit. And when it comes to serious matters, disagreements get buried under echo-chambers of people often too lazy to read the comments, and sometimes downright bullying.

Fuck that shit. You see, even retrospectively it annoys me. Yeah, I'm never going back. And if you think any of those criticisms apply to your posts on Facebook I don't care. Maybe they do, maybe they don't; not my fucking problem anymore. But if they do, then congratulations, you're one of the people who helped make me feel unwelcome, alienated, ignored and isolated, and helped drive me off what had once been a valuable social tool, but felt increasingly hostile and inhospitable.

While I'm not going back, I don't really have anything to replace it, and I'm back where I was around 2008/9 - pretty socially isolated and out of the loop.

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