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For our festive-themed Kick-About No. 120, I got stuck into writing a new short story but was unable to complete it for the submission deadline. I’ve finished it since and am sharing it here to continue the tradition of cutting the schmaltz and sentimentality with a soupçon of spook. You can read The Advent Calendar
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These photographs of Whitstable beach were taken a few days in advance of the ‘shortest day’—for the Kick-About’s Solstice prompt—though daylight has been in very short supply, what with the storms battering the UK and the stubborn low grey cloud characterising every waking day of late. I went out at low tide, when I knew
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Our last Kick-About was inspired by the Advent Calendar—a prompt that invited us to explore anticipation and twenty-four windows of time. This week we turn our creative gaze towards the Solstice. A point of stillness and transition, the Solstice marks both the longest night and the promise of light’s return. Enjoy this latest collection of
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Our previous Kick-About celebrated the blending of customs old and new, with the textiles of Melissa Cody, whose work combines traditional techniques with computer gaming. I suppose Advent calendars are a form of gamification in their way—each day a hidden reward revealed, a small but tangible thrill that keeps us moving forward. Enjoy this latest
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I have a cardboard box in my wardrobe full of socks. The socks often escape their confines and proliferate like tribbles. Inspired by the digital glitches and ‘missing pixels’ that feature in Melissa Cody’s wonderful textiles—muse for The Kick-About No.119—I decided to scan my socks, while moving them fractionally in different directions; by moving them
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Our last Kick-About together was inspired by the Perseid meteor shower—a dazzling display of celestial lights streaking across the sky. Asteroids, meanwhile, was an iconic arcade game released in 1979, capturing imaginations with its simple, vector-based graphics, and the aesthetic of computer games inspires this week’s creative muse, textile artist Melissa Cody. Enjoy this latest
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These long-exposure images—produced for The Kick-About No.118—were originally produced ‘in-camera’—with a table-top covered in black dustbin sacks and a strip of mains-powered LED-lights. The blurs and distortions were produced by photographing through some thick glass tumblers. The curvature of the planet surface was then produced digitally—just by grabbing the horizon line and giving it a
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Our previous Kick-About had a touch of spookiness about it; this week, it’s less spook more sparkle, as we cast our eyes skywards to catch a falling star or two… Enjoy this latest collection of new works made in a short time, and be sure to browse all previous editions of this fortnightly creative challenge
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This seasonal offering—produced for The Kick-About No.117—was directly inspired by my recent stay in an old French house, which often begins with the task of hoovering up cobwebs and their occupants, along with the occasional very large centipede. Afterwards, I sometimes think about the insides of the hoover—and all that might reside in there—then I
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Our previous Kick-About together was inspired by the mid-century modern textile designs of Lucienne Day, and a number of her patterns feature graphical, cobweb-like forms. With Halloween fast-approaching—and bringing with it all the usual trappings—this latest edition of The Kick-About find itself fascinated by spiders’ silk and the ingenuity of their webs. For all previous
Red's Kingdom 