curator, Author at Museum of Photocopies

PINS – Rule Six: No Clues to Objectives

In rule six of PINS we admit to having no clue to the objectives. The original photocopy – where we found the rules – underlines this point so it must be important, but we are not really sure why.

A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a photograph of an article in a military modelling magazine from 1972. This shows ancient Roman defensive earthworks. Maybe you can take inspiration from such arcana to AVOID ALL OBJECTIVES.

A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a photograph of an article in a military modelling magazine from 1972. This shows mediaeval defensive earthworks, with an implied scatalogical joke. Maybe you can take inspiration from such arcana to AVOID ALL OBJECTIVES.

A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a photograph of an article in a military modelling magazine from 1972. This image shows marching tin soldiers from the mid-1930s, a Cape of Good Hope Highlander and the Emperor of Abyssinia’s Bodyguard. Maybe these tiny tinpot guards will ward you away from ALL OBJECTIVES.

A photograph of a photocopy of a sketch by the photocopier, using various pencils on a wooden drawing board (hence the textures) showing a crow. Maybe you can take inspiration from a bird long associated with warnings to AVOID ALL OBJECTIVES.

PINS – Rule Five: What is a Unit?

A unit can be many things, as we say in our explanation to what a unit actually is. And to be honest, we don’t really know either. Here are some images you can photocopy and use to make up units of your own, or maybe inspire you to find similar things.

A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of the photocopier’s partner at an exhibition in a Rotterdam dock yard. The exhibition was a retrospective that also claimed it was a vision of the future. The photocopier finds these things very tiring. Can you MAKE A UNIT using this image?

A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of an Estonian television commercial from the early 1980s. Commercials weren’t allowed to be shown in Soviet Estonia but they had to be made, by law. Apparently. Maybe this is meant as a critique of the capitalist system.The bizarre nature of this image could help you define the boundaries of what your UNIT could comprise of.

A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of a military modelling magazine from 1972. The image shows father and son (both of a British Hussar regiment, one serving, one retired, looking at a diecast mess scene with the soldiers wearing patrols). The photocopier thinks this image is part of a huge body of socio-cultural evidence of the homegrown emotional and psychological therapies service personnel used back in the 1960s and 1970s. Without them realising. Can you MAKE A UNIT using this image?

A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a book showing the cassette tape collection (classical) owned by the photocopier’s father. Such a devotion to log-keeping. All these books (there were over 50, all told) were kept under the photocopier’s father’s bed and never really used, as the cassette player broke. Can you MAKE A UNIT using these titles?

PINS – RULE FOUR: WRITE OUT ORDERS

According to the photocopy that shows the rules, we have to write out orders for each move for each unit – “without a clue to the objective.”

In writing orders and ignoring objectives, we must remember the second Golden Rule of the Buddha, or consult Old Moore’s Almanac, or at least, Shurmer’s Official Guide of Hyndburn. None of these can be found in the Yellow Pages.

MoPC-PINS-24 — A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a sketch of a photograph of a book called GOD’S FOX about a snapper and boiler attendant in an institution, who would photograph elderly inmates. The photocopier remembers instututions like this in the 1970s. Can this image help you WRITE OUT ORDERS?

MoPC-PINS-25 — A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a sketch of a photograph of the photocoper’s father playing football in the back yard with the photocopier, then aged 2. The photocopier remembers times like this in the 1970s. The air and light was different. Can this image help you WRITE OUT ORDERS?

MoPC-PINS-21 — A photograph edited using filters, of a photocopy of a sketch out of the photocopier’s mind. The photocopier remembers daydreams like this in the 1990s. Can this image help you WRITE OUT ORDERS?

PINS – RULE THREE: DOING SOMETHING

Do you remember the Beginning? No? Never mind. We need to find someone, to tell the C.O.s to do something. Remember what or who the C.O.s are? No? Never mind. Let’s imagine we found someone. And now, let us peruse the images below and prepare to DO SOMETHING.

MopC-PINS-20 — A photograph of a printed handbill from the 1940s from a shop in Clayton-le-Moors now in an inlay of a book about MONKS and that. Maybe these images will help you DO SOMETHING.

MopC-PINS-11 — A photograph of a photocopy of a pen and ink drawing anno 1998 and a colour photograph of some greenhouses in the Bollenstreek, anno 2000. Maybe these images will help you DO SOMETHING.

Consulting what rules we have, I can now tell you. Here is what we do. We do something.

(But what to do: AKA “Disappear in front of his brother, in a PUFF of SMOKE.”)

MoPC-PINS-26 — A photograph of a photocopy of a sketch using various pencils and pens showing the Clayton Warden, about to CHINWAG. Mother says he was CHASED BY A LINE OF RATS in the war. Maybe these images will help you DO SOMETHING.

MoPC-PINS-23 — A photograph of a photocopy of a sketch using various pencils and pens showing the Clayton Warden on the Whalley Road beat. Mother says he was CHASED BY A LINE OF RATS in the war. Maybe these images will help you DO SOMETHING.

MoPC-PINS-22 — A photograph of a photocopy of a sketch using various pencils and pens showing a RAT from Clayton. Maybe these images will help you DO SOMETHING.

PINS – RULE TWO: FINDING SOMEONE

Do you remember the Beginning? No? Never mind. The second rule-post says we need to find someone, to tell the C.O.s to do something. Remember what or who the C.O.s are? No? Never mind. We should find someone.

I know this is difficult. There are so many people to choose from.

MopC-PINS-19 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of a cut up of a now dismantled and partly salvaged piece from the front doors of a WAR DROBE – an amalgam of old drawings, photocopies and texts that I thought I would continually add to over time. But DIDN’T. Remember – order needs an architect. Maybe these images will help you FIND SOMEONE.

MopC-PINS-18 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of a cut up of a now dismantled and partly salvaged piece from the front doors of a WAR DROBE – an amalgam of old drawings, photocopies and texts that I thought I would continually add to over time. But DIDN’T. Remember – I never tell anybody anything. Maybe these images will help you FIND SOMEONE.

MopC-PINS-17 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of a cut up of a now dismantled and partly salvaged piece from the front doors of a WAR DROBE – an amalgam of old drawings, photocopies and texts that I thought I would continually add to over time. But DIDN’T. Remember – Me, aged 21. Maybe these images will help you FIND SOMEONE.

Maybe find someone who knows about

Aquilégia

Alb

Agrimony

Adónis

Actǣa

Anis

Átriplex

Acontíum

Aira

Coaming

PINS – The Beginning

RULE ONE: THE BEGINNING

(AKA “The Heap of Trouble is a pile of rubble.”)

The first thing to do is to say we are at the Beginning.

For all rules, please go to The Museum Curator’s Substack.

These copies will be placed regularly, and OVER TIME. The Museum will host the elements of PINS that need no explanation, they are here for you to photocopy and use, perhaps with photocopies of your own. To make your own beginnings.

A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph from the late 1950s, maybe very early 1960s of The Curator’s mother and aunt and a family friend from Norway. They are posing in the back garden of a house near St Christopher’s High School and Moorhead High School, once Accrington Grammar School for Girls. Maybe this image will help you BEGIN PINS.

A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph from the the Libyan Desert, “acquired” from a German POW by The Curator’s great uncle, who served there in the Second World War. Yes, it’s Rommel. That is what the inscription on the back of the photo says. Maybe this image will help you BEGIN PINS.

PINS is a game for all anonymous egos, everywhere, made through repositioning and reproducing old dreams and documents.

A photograph of a photocopy of a list of orders from the original game of PINS, made by the Curator’s father. The Curator thinks his father had only really sorted these four lines of text. Maybe this can be your Beginning for PINS.

A photograph of a photocopy of a list of the various Electors of one of the imaginary continents from the original game of PINS, made by the Curator’s father. Note the focus on the mid C18th. Very important. Maybe this can be your Beginning for PINS.

A photocopy of a colour photo of an oil painting made by The Curator at the turn of the Millennium, now destroyed. This is the only surviving record. Maybe this can be your Beginning for PINS.

PINS – Setting up the Campaign

We start the game by wondering what it is.

A number of items are presented here as a taster for the long indolent road ahead of us.

We should divine the first moves by PREPARING THE GROUND and MAKING THE RULES. That’s what people always tell us to do. In this Modern World.

Though this will inevitably take time.

A photocopy of Old Accrington. Note how little there was in the centre. Surely proof of an ever changing, Magicke property.

Maps. These will determine the boundaries of PINS

We use this 1970s photocopy from a long-lost wargaming rule book to determine a campaign. More later, whenever.

Rules folder. These will be reinterpreted over time.

The boundaries of a map which we will explore.

A detail of a map. This is the North of England

A Twitch on the Thread

What does time teach us? Placing remembrances of time over the detritus of other times doesn’t bring much it seems, except more confusion. Who knows? Beware those with answers.

A Twitch on the Thread #2 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of a private party of bulb workers relaxing. Superimposed on a photocopy of a family war record. What do we do with old artefacts and information?

A Twitch on the Thread #3 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photograph of a pensive Photocopier waiting for a train. Superimposed on a photocopy of a family war record. What do we do with old artefacts and information?

Clayton Orange Alternative

We must take our luck where we can. Hence a dreamlike visitation of Wrocław’s Krasnoludek in East Lancashire. Victorian streets that cling on in the gloaming, spaces where schools and factories were, pubs that made way for motorways. We need a better narrative. Myths are needed to make us feel noticed, or carefree, again.

Orange-Alternative-Clayton-1 — A photo (using iPhone 11) of a photocopy of a pencil, crayon and ink drawing of mythological happenings in Clayton-Le-Moors, East Lancashire. A Wrocław Krasnoludek, mounted on a ceremonial C17th lion, hails the future.

Orange-Alternative-Clayton-4 — A photo (using iPhone 11) of a photocopy of a pencil, crayon and ink drawing of mythological happenings in Clayton-Le-Moors, East Lancashire. An early dinosaur eats a Beatles hanger on amidst the rubble of St James’ Infants school.

Orange-Alternative-Clayton-2 — A photo (using iPhone 11) of a photocopy of a pencil, photocopy collage, crayon and ink drawing of mythological happenings in Clayton-Le-Moors, East Lancashire. The spirit of long lost pub The Load of Mischief unchained and Central American in aspect.

Orange-Alternative-Clayton-3 — A photo (using iPhone 11) of a photocopy of a pencil, crayon and ink drawing of mythological happenings in Clayton-Le-Moors, East Lancashire. Note the Edward VII postbox. And blue feathered shaman. The head is that of Sir Philip Sydney.

The Memory Vortex – Stasis #2

In the Spring of 2000, the Photocopier left England to live in a caravan in the Netherlands. He took a lot of pictures before leaving and on arriving.

Back then, photographs were taken on a camera. Some turned out well, some didn’t. Some are of a Lancashire long gone, some of a Holland just discovered but now disappeared for ever.

What remains in these photocopies of photographs is the stasis, the time that never existed, the time that floated around not asking to be captured. That’s the time that stays with us when we see it again.