“While studying at Central St. Martins in 1992 I made a small book as part of my Masters. It was printed at the University in their litho facility. I remember being greatly struck by the make ready sheets used while setting up the press for the print run. On them, amongst mine was layer over layer of student projects haphazardly superimposed. The transparency of the ink made the layers merge into something dense and complicated. Nonsensical on one level, but this stayed with me as an image of potential energy. It appeared as if all these ideas had been compressed into the sheet and trapped for storage. (Sadly, it never occurred to me to keep any of these sheets, and their fate presumably was a skip. We didn’t do much recycling then).
The thought first came to me through drumming, but now it seems clear that most of what I do is about energy transfer. In each undertaking there is a sequence of capture, storage and release. The content is gathered and arranged, is charged or amplified through the physicality of the medium. Ink on paper, light emitting from a screen, speaker cones pushing air, an object in space later releases this delayed experience. In the process there is conversion, and some loss, and of course our perceptions change over time.
The end result, what we make visible of our work, has been filtered down through multiple iterations, and for the most part is better for it. There’s a moment though, in the process of development which is filled with potential, yet to be realised. It is of this moment that make readys speak. In some ways this is closer to actual experience, where everything is essentially in disarray, yet somehow a possible path emerges. ”
photograph courtesy Lauren Pritchard
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Peter Maybury
2015
Written and designed by Peter, Make ready is not a scholarly work. Part manifesto, part process journal, it gathers recollections and observations on the making of work and how we experience our often heavily mediated environment.
Beginning with Peter's training in analogue media, and how this shaped his working process, it includes some of the work that was highly influential for him early on. Print work from the beginning of his career includes Code magazine, the Dublin French Film Festival, and his work for the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, such as The bread and butter stone. The process of their coming into being is written about and illustrated. The text then moves through his work with more complex productions for the Douglas Hyde Gallery and The Irish Museum of Modern Art, and to many long-term collaborations, particularly with visual artists. Film, installation and sculptural works by Gall are discussed, as are many of his recorded music projects.
Throughout the book are interludes with observations on the development of photographic images and printing processes; recording made through photographs, video & film, and sound; and on drumming and music-making. Through these, much of the underlying strategic thought in his approach is revealed.
Peter regards all of his work as a joint-venture, and a cast of regular collaborators emerges.
Despite reproducing images of many books by, or containing works by others, the subject of Make Ready is the methodology in the making of work, and ways that are found to communicate ideas. For this reason all the reproductions are at a remove - rather than full-colour, the book is illustrated throughout in tritones.
The book is printed by Marcel Meesters, with whom Peter has collaborated for many years. Marcel will speak on a panel during OFFSET, and will give a talk at the Library Project, prior to the Make Ready book launch at the Library Project on Thursday 5 March.