What:
Moby Dick Big Read celebrates the 161st anniversary of the publication of Moby Dick. This is an online version of Herman Melville’s masterpiece: each of its chapters read by a mixture of the celebrated and the unknown, broadcasted online in a sequence of 135 downloads, publicly and freely accessible. Tilda Swinton, Stephen Fry and Simon Callow have all recorded chapters from Moby Dick for you to listen to here.

This book foresaw many of the aspects of the modern world from the abuse of power and belief; of nature and the environment to the overweening ambition and delusion of one man. It deals with art and artifice and stark reality – in an almost existential manner.

Why we like it:
Each chapter can be listened to online or downloaded to mobile devices. The chapters all feature an accompanying artwork from an array of artists such as Turner Prize winner, Mark Wallinger, Linder and Zaha Hadid Architects. With new chapters added daily, your journey to work in the mornings can now be much more enjoyable.

There are also a variety of associated events which you can view here.

Find out more:
Website | SoundCloud | iTunes | Podcast Feed | Facebook

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

What:
Aperture, a very busy not-for-profit foundation, is a multi-platform publisher connecting photographers and their audiences with the most inspiring work and the best ideas.

Aperture magazine publishes four issues each year and these are filled with the most inspiring photography and writing on photography. They also publish between twelve and fifteen new photobooks, and books about photography, each year, with a growing digital publishing program, including e-books, apps, and a daily blog, as well as online features on their website. They have thus far published over 650 books.

Aperture 208 Magazine, Fall 2012

Additionally, they have a regular program of exhibitions each year, at their gallery in New York and at partner venues, touring to museums and other photography centers nationally and internationally. In their shop, Aperture sell approximately twenty-five print editions each year, many by emerging photographers, aimed at collectors and published to support their programs, and the photographers they work with.

Why we like it:
As if all that was not enough, Aperture host an annual Portfolio Prize, recognizing and promoting the most exciting emerging photographers internationally, and Paris Photo, an annual PhotoBook Award recognizing the contribution of photographers’ books.

Aperture 208 Magazine, Fall 2012

Aperture are celebrating their sixtieth anniversary in 2012 with exhibitions, publications and a Gala. See here for more details.

Find out more:
Website | Blog | Twitter

Ever since we started out as a zine and poetry event in Liverpool, we’ve been guided by the network of artists, writers and designers that surround us, and the things that really get us out of bed in the morning – that’s meant that we’ve delivered a massive range of work over the years, from brand identity and digital campaigns, to copywriting and live illustration. Right now, we have a fantastic roster of clients for our design, and an arts programme that produces new language-led commissions in performance, new media and the public realm.

The central strand of our arts programme is currently Electronic Voice Phenomena, it’s about really engaging with the technological interface, and seeing how it can be a kind of tool for experiencing language in new ways. We’ve been experimenting with and developing some new interfaces, such as LiveWriting which allows us to create live-written text animations. Working collaboratively with artists as we did with Sam Meech for LiveWriting is at the core of our values and is a key reason why we’ve been able to stick around for so long.

The Electronic Voice Phenomena theme is going to be part of our collaboration with Liverpool Biennial 2012 this Autumn, where we’ll again be working with Anat Ben David, Steven Fowler, Hannah Silver and Scanner. We’ve worked with the Liverpool Biennial since 2008 and have always aimed to present a completely new Mercy event for each festival. We always say this year will be our most ambitious, but it’s probably more honest to say that we’re always challenging ourselves and the Biennial is a great way of identifying how much we’ve grown over a two year period.

As soon as we’re finished with the Biennial (5 -7 October) we move straight onto the Manchester weekender where we’ll be creating a huge self-generating feedback loop of spoken word, live sampling, processing and projection at The Cornerhouse.

Between then and our EVP Spring tour with Penned in the Margins, we’ll be working closely with Young Pines, our pilot scheme to identify new ways for young talent to break into the creative industries. This year alone we’ve worked with FACT on a network where poets can learn coding, called Syntax, organised documentation from a 48 hour performance by Mark Greenwood, presented an EVP free for all at Cafe Oto and are now getting towards the finishing post with some work with public artist Laurence Payot and designer Scott Spencer.

All this is part of a GFA from Arts Council, which we supplement with workshops, other grant funds, and tickets, and partnership other galleries and festivals like the Biennial, FACT, Ideastap, Cornerhouse and AND Festival – as well as more independent organisations like new music curators like Deep Hedonia, Hive and Samizdat in Liverpool. We’re really proud of these partnerships, and we try to keep up with them all while building new ones. Just now, we’re chatting with super-cool curators Trigger in Scotland.

We were once told Mercy are generous which is something we’ve really clung onto. We wouldn’t grow if we didn’t actively seek opportunities to work with new illustrators and developers, artists and promoters. There are so many opportunities available if people are willing to step outside of their comfort zone.

It’s satisfying to make your living from ideas, but to make it work, it has to be intense most of the time.

Mercy are curating a Liverpool Biennial weekend on 5 – 7 October
.

Mercy Present:

Composite: Feedback
Sat 12th October 2012 | 3 – 6pm | 
The Cornerhouse Manchester.

Sign up for the newsletter and buy tickets here.

Find Out More:
Website | Twitter

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See here for more Collectives featured on Central Station.
Contact us to talk about a feature for your Collective.

Tutt Tutt is the alter ego of Lincolnshire based illustrator Sonia C Whitehead who works in graphics, publishing and print.

What’s in the blog:
Tutt Tutt’s blog is a mix of documentation of works, as well as posts about her current Degree Show.

Why we like it:
As well as pleasing patterns, we like that Tutt Tutt’s blog is really all about her work. Tutt Tutt is new to blogging and sees it as a “virtual journey.” We hope she continues on this journey as we sure do like seeing her work.

Hidden treasure:
Tucked away in one of her posts, Tutt Tutt’s illustration for children’s book Alice in Wonderland is so good, we just had to share it:

Where to find out more:
Read Tutt Tutt’s blog here.
Follow Tutt Tutt on Twitter.
Like Tutt Tutt on Facebook.

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Want to take a look at more suggested blogs by artists? Look here.

It was difficult to choose just one image from Nicola Watson’s “Artist Book” set on flickr. We strongly recommend browsing through them all here.

This is what Nicola says about herself:
“my work is generally created through ideas of anti establishment as well as exploring themes of identity, through the examination of electronic forms of identity including barcodes and binary, along with more aesthetic manmade methods of identity such as graffiti and the use of language and poetry.”

There are only 7 days left – get yourself featured in our 50×50 promotion and in the running for cash prizes. Find out how here.

Nick Cocozza is an illustration graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee who is now based in Berlin.

We noticed this work by Nick on our Behance community and thought it should be shared.

Here is what Nick has to say about it:
“This pop-up book was a piece that i produced in response to a live brief from the German Embassy in London as part of a design competition for DAAD.

Following the brief to create a modern day fairytale, i chose to put a modern twist on my favourite childhood fairytale; ‘Hansel and Gretel’.”

See the full book here.

There are 16 days left – get yourself featured in our 50×50 promotion and in the running for cash prizes. Find out how here.

But what few notice is the miracle in Charlotte Square: the city that is the Edinburgh International Book Festival grows there in three weeks, only to be dismantled at the end of the Festival season… By the end of July it’s clear that something is afoot, although it’s yet a far cry from the finished product.

Something I hadn’t realised is that the placement of the many and varied buildings around the square is something that has evolved over the 28 years since the festival started. Each tent is squeezed up between the trees to make as much use of the space as is possible!

I had hoped to create a thorough series of the build this year but time, and the weather, foiled me. So instead I went on site on the day when the books were due to start coming in, a remarkable undertaking when you realise how many they have! When I arrived most of the buildings were there, it was only lacking the entrance, the Spiegeltent and the yurts which are used to house the authors, press etc. The bookshop tent was all but complete; the shelves were all there, all it needed were books!

The children’s bookshop tent was slightly further behind, with workmen still finishing the shelving, but this seemed a minor matter.

The site was a hive of directed activity, the displays were getting the finishing touches…

… the main theatre was getting the last bits of tech installed…

… there were chairs and tables just waiting to be placed…

… and the last of the walkways were getting covered.

At last the moment arrived and the first load of books arrived. The initial set up takes three lorries loads of books. Over the course of the festival some are taken away and replaced, as different events will cause demand for different stock. This is all rotated through a secure container on site and a huge warehouse out of town. Now there’s a timelapse I should do!

As each pallet of books was unloaded it was delivered to one of the bookshops and unwrapped.

The boxes are then taken to the appropriate section by the bookshop staff, where they mount up at a fair pace!

Once the first delivery is in the unpacking starts and shelves start to fill up.

… and are delivered to the bookshops…

… and the shelves fill up…

And all the while every box has to be painstakingy flatpacked for later – after all, not everything gets sold and they will need to get them out again in just a few weeks!

It was a dizzying thing to watch!

I’ll be going in again before the Book Festival starts but I expect it will be all ready to go. Then it’s time for the fun and I’ll try to keep you appraised of what’s been happening there.

This year, the book festival was brave. It did things it had never done before. In a time where funding is being pulled left, right and centre, it would be easy for an established festival like the EIBF to stick to their guns, sit on their laurels and hide, but they didn’t.

Instead, they brought out a programme that was rich and varied, with more of my favourite writers than I have ever seen before (and that’s after working for  four literary festivals over six years) and a selection of exciting new events.

From Unbound, which filled the Spiegeltent with music, writing and tons of people every night, to their fantastic guest selectors, to their fantastic social media presence, they were really on the ball. They showed what a book festival could do.

As the Booker prize was announced today it made me sad that they did not take risks with their selection. There was no Mitchell, no Christos Tsiolkas, no spark. Though I appreciate the work that literary novelists do, I ultimately believe that authors who appeal to a wide audience do  great things too.  Be it Scarlett Thomas or (dare I say it) Stephenie Meyer, these guys are really reaching and affecting a large group of people. Neil Gaiman tells a great story about how he was once asked by a literary novelist at a festival how he made his living, to which he replied, ‘I write books’. The novelist was incredulous that Gaiman could support himself solely through his writing. This is something that has really stuck with me.  It makes me happy, then, to see the Guardian running the Not the Booker prize, which allows people to nominate the books they feel are deserving of acclaim. The shortlist is currently being contended, but you can read the original longlist here.

Seeing the range of books submitted for consideration is joyful; just look at it! Comics sit happily next to literary novels, which in turn are making friends with science fiction stalwarts and popular fiction.  It’s very similar to what you see in this year’s book festival programme, and it’s a trend I hope to see continuing.

And so I am going to look forward, to when the winter is over, when Charlotte Square has been re-sod, and my bones stop hurting.  I can’t wait to see what next year’s book festival, and Not the Booker, bring us..

However, this is not the Moore I saw today. Sure, he has an excellent beard, and yes, he is frighteningly intelligent, but at his core Alan Moore comes across as a very rational and personable man.

His work in comics helped redefine the genre at a time when it needed it most, helping, in his own words, to make comics fit their times and more accurately reflect a contemporary world. Almost 30 years on, and Moore speaks of his comic work with only a hint of regret, and apologises for starting the trend that has made every character in today’s comics a psychopath or a murderer.  Sadly, he does not hold the rights for the most famous of these books (Swamp Thing, Watchmen, V for Vendetta), due to creators’ rights issues. Moore has now become known for his work outside the mainstream, with smaller publishers like Knockabout and America’s Best Comics. For people looking for something off the beaten track, I can now recommend Moore’s new magazine venture, Dodgemlogic.

During the space of a too short hour, Moore talked about his background, his methods of storytelling (Moore is famous for his highly visual scripts) and his past with DC. He speaks with such confidence and resolution about this time, that you can’t not see his side of the story.

At the end of the event, an audience member asks; ‘Alan, how do you not compromise your morals and stay true to your writing, while still making your books a huge commercial success?’ to which Alan Moore responds:

‘As a writer, you simply cannot think about commercial success. You have the obligation to stay true to your own voice, but that is all. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what people want, because they’d probably want The Sun; it’s about what they need.’

My wish with my Edinburgh International Book Festival coverage was to provide an accurate picture of what it’s like to go to a festival and still have to get up the next day, and in some ways my (lack of) coverage has been quite accurate, because no one has seen me. I run from work to events, sloping in and then dashing off again to help out with work (day work) related projects or to catch one of the few shows I foolishly booked for at the Fringe. I wish that I could wander serene and bookish around Charlotte Square Gardens, notebook in hand,  looking all calm and interesting, but I am really never going to be like that. I will always that slightly mad person with the red hair bouncing from one event to the other, looking vaguely stressed out . If you spot me, come say hi. I am not as stressed as I look, promise.

Anyway, here’s the first part of my blast through Charlotte Square this past week, to give you an idea of what it has been like.

OPENING WEEKEND

On Saturday morning the Edinburgh International Book Festival opened its doors for the 21^st time. By now a truly grown up festival, it has been given new youth by its latest director, Nick Barley, who took up the reigns in October of last year, and has since been making some radical changes to regular book festival fare.

The first day, however, was classic Book Festival. The Soweto Gospel Choir were singing just inside the entrance to the gardens and the weather was glorious. There were old faces and lots of new ones, and that lovely book festival buzz was definitely doing the rounds.

First up was Garth Nix, Australian author of Lirael, Sabriel and Abhorsen. He put on a great show, and told a lot of stories about his life (most of which turned out to be lies), to teach the kids in the audience that anyone can tell a good story – or a good lie – with the right tools.

It was interesting to go from an event where stories were described as lies to the Philip Pullman event. Pullman was attending the Book Festival to discuss his latest book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. The book is divisively published as part of Canongate’s Myth series, which sees well known authors reimagining famous myths.

The Good Man Jesus certainly has Pullman written all over it, and smacks of His Dark Materials, both in tone and ideological bias.

The event featured Philip Pullman in conversation with former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries, and rock star theologian Richard Holloway. Richard Holloway spoke about faith and the problems of the church at the closing event of last year’s festival, and did so with such intelligence and compassion that it seemed only natural that he would chair this event.

For a discussion that could have so easily disintegrated into argument, Holloway handled the event admirably, instead posing questions that allowed Harries and Pullman to find common ground and expand upon their views for the audience’s benefit.

All three started off in agreement that the figure of Jesus likely existed, but whether this figure was divinely sent is another matter entirely. CS Lewis famously said that Jesus could only be one of two things, God or mad, but Pullman sees this is a foolish dichotomy, and one that can only divide people. Holloway asked: Is it possible to have a non-divine Jesus that is still morally relevant, or are the human and the divine interminably bound together? This is the question that Pullman has tried to answer in The Good Man, providing a moral and human alternative to the traditional gospels of the New Testament.

What I found interesting was Pullman’s openness to discussion and debate, despite the strong moral thwack of his novels. Last year at the festival, we saw Richard Dawkins speak out about the foolishness of religion. Pullman was the opposite. Though he remains opposed to the structures of institutional religion and is sceptical of miracles, Pullman believes that, at the end of the day ‘religion is about the experience’ and so anything that encourages this cannot be a bad thing. To Harries, he said:  ‘If my book makes people so cross that they go and read the New Testament, no one could be happier than me.’

All three men come from very different backgrounds, but agreed that the experience of religion is, at the core of it, one’s own, and that very little can or should be done by the church to mediate it. Though part of me wanted to see Harries and Pullman go at it Vatican-style, the end result was much more informative.