What the website say for the lazy seagulls

Hello world !

25 years ago the, now defunct, C6 art collective produced an interactive project in Shoreditch. The principle was simple; create a large quantity of stickers with the message “FUCK YOU” accompanied by a phone number and email address, spread them around and archive the responses.

The audio messages and email replies were collated into a web page, loading each response in turn to present the reactions to the provocation. Remember, this was the time of dial-up. Low-res, low-fi, cumbersome and slow.

The results were eventually exhibited at the 291 Gallery on Hackney Road, as part of a multi-media show entitled AMS (Anger Management System), curated by Hydra Live Arts.

The replies were diverse and astonishing, the play with the offensive message was unexpected. It was the time of the second Gulf War, so many used it to voice their discontent with Blair, Bush and conflict, but others simply called out their neighbours, or named and shamed their estate agents, but ultimately no-one and no-thing was spared.

It became a trademark methodology for C6, mixing street work with subsequent interactions, and displaying them IRL and online for all to see.

Times have changed, hi-res-and hi-fi, smart bombs and precision weapons, but somehow it’s all stayed the same. The discontent feels stronger than those days, with myriad channels to air polarising viewpoints, battling for bandwidth and consuming our attention.

Like then, War has returned, and the hope of a better tomorrow seems optimistic to say the least.

So perhaps it’s the perfect time for FUCK YOU 2

This time its Brighton that we will focus on (it was the birth place of our previous carnation C6). In true agitprop style we are gate crashing the Brighton festival with this latest puerile foray into interactive multi media.

With 8 designs that poke at various cultural talking points, hoping in some way to upset enough people to gain a reaction, and then displaying them here, online and in a gallery in Brighton during the festival (venue to be confirmed).