Spiderf*rt Press

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 101% contributed

Spiderf*rt Press publishes new, experimental books at the intersection of performance and literature. I founded the press last year with four collaborating editors. Now we are working toward the release of our first title: a book by the Chicago-based collective Mocrep, known for creating work that blends music, performance art, media, and movement. Launching the press and publishing our first book is a huge endeavor which we view as an opportunity to shape an exciting movement in contemporary culture. In all its work, Spiderf*rt Press poses the question to a diverse stable of artists: how does a book unfold in time? In space? And we hope readers ask themselves: how do I want to participate in the performance of this book? Or of any book, for that matter? And where else around here could I be playing a different role? Without relying solely on self-funding, we’re asking for contributions to help launch the project, including covering start-up and materials costs.

About This Project

I originally started Spiderf*rt Press because I had the sense that there's a movement emerging in contemporary classical music, and I saw an opportunity to accelerate its momentum. In "new music" circles, an ascendant brand of experimental, multidisciplinary performance not only applies video, media, and movement onto concert music, but pushes the performer so far into non-instrumental, non-musical contexts that it throws the integrity of the musical discipline into question.

I think this movement—unfolding in our corner of the art world as well as in literature, theater, and other fields—is part of a broad phenomenon in contemporary culture in which most people live everyday life across multiple media and via multiple platforms; in which technology enables most people to create and share their own music, movement, photography, and design; in which most everyone has 10 browser windows open at any moment and most everything references multiple meanings and histories simultaneously. For me, being an artist at this time in human history is exciting (and overwhelming!) because it feels like any creative desire can manifest in any medium. I wanted Spiderf*rt Press to capture this sprawl in book form.

Spiderf*rt Press is a project I share with four editors: Jessica Anne (writer, playwright, producer of Lit Crawl Chicago, editor of MAKE Magazine, formerly of the Neo-Futurists); Natacha Diels (composer, performer, member of Ensemble Pamplemousse, UCSD faculty); Sam Scranton (composer, performer, drummer, formerly of the band Volcano!); and Katherine Young (composer, improviser, bassoonist, SAIC faculty).

Through Spiderf*rt Press, we aim to foster a sense of shared co-creation among artists and readers by publishing books that work equally as books and as materials for performance. We imagine some Spiderf*rt Press books will play with recognizable forms that invite reader participation: how-to, self-help, recipes, diagrams, and reference. Some might look more like text-based musical scores, scripts, audiobooks, or meditation tapes. We hope at least some of them look like nothing we've seen before!

For the first book, Mocrep lays out a new zodiac—a pseudo-science of personality and a handbook for anyone who needs help navigating relationships and creativity. Quizzes, worksheets, tips, and recipes help readers to understand themselves and give them tools to cope in a complicated universe.

Having co-run the record label Parlour Tapes+ for six years now, I know how simple and powerful a distribution platform can be in gathering people and ideas. Creating a book (or a record) helps like-minded artists, editors, and producers find each other and discover new perspectives by working together. Then releasing the thing into the world fires off a beacon that in turn helps those people find their people among the listeners, readers, and audiences that are attracted to the work. The book is a book, but it's also a network of people (a spider web, maybe?) who co-realize the idea across time and space. I hope donors feel like they are a part of that web, too.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $25
  Permanent recognition on the Spiderf*rt Press website ($25.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  Recognition on the Spiderf*rt Press website and a copy of the first limited-edition release by Mocrep ($20.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  All of the above, plus printed recognition in Mocrep's book ($70.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  All of the above, plus A Poem A Month: a subscription postcard series with original work by a new artist every month ($350.00 is tax deductible.)

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Deidre Huckabay

Make a Wave Artist

Deidre Huckabay is a Chicago-based performer, composer, writer, photographer, and record producer. Her work reflects a solitary, interior world, drawing on a musical life that requires long hours alone and listening. She tends to make work that undermines authorship by …

View Deidre Huckabay's profile

• 4 updates
• 41 supporters

• Update 1: We are well on our way! And there's more to come!

  Posted on June 01, 2019

   

  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU all for contributing to Spiderf*rt Press! I am (we are!) overwhelmed and humbled by your support. For those who don't know the authors of the press's first title, Chicago-based collective Mocrep—and even for those who do!—see the group at a not-to-be-missed record release show on Monday, June 3 at Sleeping Village, featuring weird and wonderful opening acts from Sarah Squirm and The Neo-Futurists. And for those who can't make it, watch this space for the digital release on Monday. Two preview tracks are currently available there, as well. :-) Love and gratitude!

  Update 2: We snagged the match! Now for the final sprint.

  Posted on June 11, 2019

   

  Thank you thank you thank you to all who have donated so far! With your help, we triggered the matching pledge from 3Arts yesterday! Now it's time for the final sprint. I'm so glad you all will be a part of it! :-)

  Update 3: We made it!!

  Posted on June 17, 2019

   

  Wow!! Everyone!! We made it!! Thanks to all of you, Spiderf*rt Press met its goal and landed its match from 3Arts! I am and we are thrilled, overwhelmed. We can't wait to see what's next—and to share it with all of you. <3

  Update 4: A Change of Plans

  Posted on June 22, 2020

   

  Dear, dear friends and supporters. Last summer seems like it was a lifetime away! During this time of grief, hope, and reflection, we hope you all are taking actions that are meaningful for you and your communities right now—on top of staying safe and healthy.

   

  With your support, Spiderf*rt Press and our collaborators at Mocrep spent the last year preparing our mutual first book, called I want to know. We had intended to celebrate the release with you all this month. We all feel strongly that this is not a moment for our voices to be amplified, and we have decided to release I want to know at a later date. Instead, we have turned our attention to the things we want to know now. We want to share this list of things we are learning from, digesting, and finding joy in. These are works by Black artists, thinkers, and activists. We are grateful for their insights, their willingness to teach us, their anger, and their joy.

   

  If you donated to this campaign last summer and opted to receive a book as your perk, you can expect to receive it this month. We look forward to celebrating I want to know with a broader public in the future. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you all for supporting us. We are sincerely grateful. <3

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