This is an ‘incomplete textual sample’ made in collaboration with Rachel Lois Clapham, that comes out of Walking (S)miles by Present Attempt. Rachel was commissioned by Hazard Festival and Critical Writing Collective to respond to some of the work in Hazard 2010 (Manchester’s micro-festival of incidental intervention and sited performance). The text emerged from transcripts of audio recordings that Rachel made as she wandered through Manchester on Saturday afternoon and too part in Walking Smiles – an event that builds a unique ‘map’ of a city as people wander through it, collecting smiles from passers by. Below is the text.

Optional Instructions for Self-Assembly

1. Print the document

2. Cut each of the pages down the centre with the exception of the last page

3. Affix the cut pages to the last page

4. (W)read the document

We will be up in Manchester on 17th July 2010 running Walking Smiles at Hazard – a biennial festival of intervention and sited performance offering strange occurrences in unexpected places.

Stationed in the Manchester Arndale Centre – we will send out a ‘army’ of smilers who have one hour to go out into the city to see if they can raise the temperature by trying to solicit smiles from strangers. These smiles then get mapped in real time, creating a handmade visualization of the intervention.

Walking Smiles is part of the Larkin’ About programme – a mircofestival within a festival!